KDE's Aaron Seigo has published a blog post in which he details how Nepomuk and the semantic desktop can be beneficial to users. He introduces the concepts of "context" and "context switches" - possible states are "writing an OSNews news item", or "posting a blog entry", or "editing your MySpace page". When you switch from one of these contexts to another, it's called a context switch, according to Seigo. "What happens with the rest of the software running on your computer when you switch contexts?" Seigo answers his own question. "Pretty much nothing. At least not automatically."

The KDE project wants to use the Nepomuk semantic desktop project to publish and collect information on contexts. As an example, Seigo details how you could tag certain contacts as "workmates", and have them show up atop your buddy list in Kopete as soon as your context switches to "work". Seigo explains what needs to be done to get there:

Over the next couple of days we'll be coding the start of a Nepomuk service for publishing and collecting information on the current context and I'll be hooking Plasma into it. This will allow other applications to see the various known Contexts and either automagically tag data with appropriate Contexts and/or let the user manually tag data. Going back to the Kopete and contacts widget example, once we can associated (or "tag") contacts in Akonadi with Contexts then Kopete and the contacts Plasmoid will be able to adapt in concert with Plasma.

Applications will have to be made context-aware for all of this to work, so KDE developers can expect nightly visits and scary back seat encounters (you know, you step into your car, and see Seigo sitting in the back seat) with Seigo, prodding them to implement context-awareness. "This won't make applications dependent on either Plasma or Nepomuk, they'll just work better when they are around. All that will be required is D-Bus, which is already a requirement for KDE 4 applications. But if Nepomuk is around then applications will be able to rifle through and get information on Contexts. Likewise, if Plasma is around then the user will be able to interact rather directly with the Context using their desktop shell."

At Home In The Universe is a landmark piece of thinking by Stuart Kauffman from the Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics at the University of Calgary, Canada.  Stuart through the application of Boolean networks, chaos theory, biology and biochemistry makes a profound hypothesis:  Life is a higher level of order achieved though a natural phase change.  In otherwords, the "observer" that Einstein kept out of his equations belongs there as every living thing exists as another state in the equation.  The observer is part of the cosmic system.

There were two things that I considered a crucial flaw in Stuarts work.  First, he talked about a three state system:

1. The chaotic state
2. The edge of chaotic state
3. The ordered state

but he always looked at it as a two state system with the edge of chaotic state balancing on the singularity of the phase change between chaos and order.

This slavishness to a Boolean networks keeps him from seeing another, what I consider, obvious possibility.  Stuart's light bulb metaphor should have trinary bulbs not binary bulbs--a trinary network.  Like a gas, liquid and solid--the three states of matter-- there is a chaotic, ordered and inert state with life residing in the ordered state between two phase transitions (I wonder about how chaos theory would explain the plasma state).

I don't know if his use of Boolean rules ever provided for this possibility.  It would have resolved many of the challenges he faced and documented in his book.

The second thing I wondered about is he regarded a tightly coupled system as chaotic and a loosely coupled system as ordered.  The logic seems backwards to me.  Is not a solid tightly coupled and orderly and a gaseous system loosely coupled and chaotic?  I will have to delve more deeply into the concepts of chaos theory before I agree.

As a final thought, we could take the six interrogatives and turn them into a new equation:

L * E = O * M * c ^ 2

Where L is Logic, E is Energy, O is Observer, M is Mass and c is the distance (d) light travels over time (t).

Logic would be defined as the rules that correctly describe the cosmic system.  Einstein referred to this logic as "The Old One".  My hypothesis is our understanding of these rules, the logic of the observer, is a state as well.

ചലനരഹിതപ്രതലങ്ങൾ ഇല്ലാത്ത ഇടമായാണ്‌ 2002ൽ പുറത്തിറങ്ങിയ സ്റ്റീവൻ സ്പിൽബർഗിന്റെ 'മൈനോരിറ്റി റിപ്പോർട്ട്‌' എന്ന ചലച്ചിത്രം ഭാവിയെ വരച്ചുകാട്ടിയത്‌. വായനക്കാരുടെ കൈകളിലിരുന്ന്‌ സ്വയം അപ്‌ഡേറ്റ്‌ ചെയ്യപ്പെടുന്ന ദിനപത്രങ്ങൾ, വഴിപോക്കരോട്‌ സംസാരിക്കുന്ന പരസ്യങ്ങൾ, എന്തിന്‌ പത്തായങ്ങൾ പോലും അനിമേറ്റഡായിരുന്നു.  പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്‌ അധിഷ്ഠിത ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സിലെ മുന്നേറ്റങ്ങളാണ്‌ ഇതിൽ പ്രധാന പങ്കുവഹിക്കുന്നത്‌.

അത്തരം ഗാഡ്ജറ്റ്സും ഡിസ്‌പ്ലേകളും സിലിക്കൺ അധിഷ്ഠിത ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സിനെ അപേക്ഷിച്ച്‌ പലതരത്തിലും മേൽക്കൈ അവകാശപ്പെടാവുന്നതാണ്‌. ചെലവുകുറവുംഊർജ്ജക്ഷമത കൂടുതലുമാണവയ്ക്ക്‌.

ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സ്‌ കൺസൽട്ടിങ്‌ കമ്പനിയായ ഐഡിടെക്‌എക്‌സിന്റെ കണക്കനുസരിച്ച്‌ 2015-ഓടെ 30 ബില്യൺ ഡോളറിന്റെ (ഏകദേശം 1,26,719 കോടി രൂപ) മൂല്യമുള്ള വ്യവസായമാകും പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്‌ ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സ്‌ ഇൻഡുസ്ട്രി. 2025 ആകുമ്പോഴേക്കും ഇത്‌ 250 ബില്യൺ ഡോളറായി (10,56,000 കോടി രൂപ) വർധിക്കുമെന്നാണ്‌ പ്രവചനം.

'പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്‌ ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സ്‌ യൗവനപ്രാപ്തിയിലെത്തുന്നതോടെ ഇന്നവേറ്റീവ്‌ ആയ ഒരു വലിയ പങ്ക്‌ ആപ്ലിക്കേഷനുകൾ പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കാ'മെന്ന്‌ ഭൗതികശാസ്ത്ര ജേണലായ ഫിസിക്സ്‌ വേൾഡ്‌  പ്രഖ്യാപിക്കുന്നു.

ജൈവ ടെലിവിഷനുകൾ വരുന്നു

വിഷ്വൽ ഡിസ്‌പ്ലേകൾ മുതൽ ആംബിയന്റ്‌ ലൈറ്റിങ്‌ വരെ ദൃശ്യപ്രപഞ്ചത്തെയാകെ മാറ്റിമറിക്കാനുതകുന്ന കണ്ടുപിടുത്തമാണ്‌ ഓർഗാനിക്‌ ലൈറ്റ്‌ എമിറ്റിങ്‌ ഡയോഡ്‌. എല്ലാ ജൈവവസ്‌തുക്കളെയും പോലെ കാർബൺ അധിഷ്ഠിതമായതിനാലാണ്‌ ജൈവ എൽഇഡി എന്ന്‌ അവയെ വിശേഷിപ്പിക്കുന്നത്‌.

ഓരോ ജൈവ എൽഇഡി പിക്സലും സ്വയം ജ്വലിക്കും. ഇത്‌ വസ്‌തുക്കളും ഊർജ്ജവും സ്ഥലവും ലാഭിക്കുകയും കൂടുതൽ നേർത്ത ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്‌ ഉപകരണങ്ങളുണ്ടാവാൻ ഇടവരുത്തുകയും ചെയ്യും. വിവിധ ആംഗിളുകളിൽ നിന്ന്‌, ചിലപ്പോൾ ഇരുവശത്തുനിന്നും കാണാനുതകുംവിധം ഫ്ലെക്സിബിലിറ്റിയും ഒഎൽഇഡി സ്ക്രീനുകൾക്കുണ്ടാവും.

ജൈവ എൽഇഡി സ്ക്രീനുകളിൽ പല നിറങ്ങളുടെ പിക്സലുകൾ പലയളവിൽ തേഞ്ഞു തീരുന്നത്‌ പ്രശ്നമാണ്‌. എന്നാലിത്‌ മറികടക്കാൻ കഴിയുമെന്നായിട്ടുണ്ട്‌.

ജനുവരിയിൽ സോണി ആദ്യ ഒഎൽഇഡി ടിവി യുഎസിൽ പുറത്തിറക്കി. മൂന്ന്‌ മില്ലിമീടാർ കനവും 11 ഇഞ്ച്‌ വീതിയു മുള്ള ടെലിവിഷന്‌ 2500 ഡോളറായിരുന്നു വില. എൽസിഡികളുടെ ഉപയോഗകാലാവധിയുടെ പകുതിയോളം - ഏകദേശം 30,000 മണിക്കൂർ - തടസ്സമില്ലാതെ പ്രവർത്തിക്കാൻ ഈ കുഞ്ഞുടിവിക്ക്‌ കഴിയും.

ഏതാനും വർഷങ്ങൾക്കകം ഉപയോഗശേഷം ചുരുട്ടിവയ്ക്കാവുന്ന ഭീമൻ ഹൈഡെഫനിഷൻ ടെലിവിഷനുകളുടെ ഒരു തലമുറ വരുമെന്നാണ്‌ പ്രതീക്ഷ.  ഭിത്തികളിൽ പതിപ്പിച്ച നേർത്ത പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്‌ ഷീറ്റുകൾ മോണിറ്ററായും പ്രവർത്തിക്കും.
ജൈവഎൽഇഡി വോൾ പേപ്പർ ഉപയോഗിച്ച്‌ ഒരു മുറിമുഴുവനായും പ്രകാശിതമാക്കാം.

ഏതുപ്രതലത്തിലും പറ്റിച്ചേരാനാവുന്ന ജൈവഎൽഇഡിമെച്ചപ്പെട്ട ജംഗമസ്വഭാവവും  വൻവിപണന സാധ്യതയും നൽകുന്നു.  സെൽ ഫോണിലും പിഡിഎകളിലും ഒഎൽഇഡി സ്ക്രീനുകൾ വ്യാപകമായി ഉപയോഗിച്ചുതുടങ്ങിയിട്ടുണ്ട്‌.

സേനയ്ക്കും ചങ്ങാതി

ന്യൂ ജേഴ്സിയിലെ യൂണിവേഴ്സൽ ഡിസ്പ്ലേ കോർപ്പറേഷൻ യുഎസ്‌ പ്രതിരോധവകുപ്പുമായി ചേർന്ന്‌ 'യൂണിവേഴ്സൽ കമ്മ്യൂണിക്കേഷൻ ഡിവൈസ്‌' എന്ന ഉപകരണം വികസിപ്പിക്കാനുള്ള ശ്രമത്തിലാണ്‌. കമ്പനിയുടെ ടെക്നോളജി കൊമേഴ്സ്യലൈസേഷന്റെ ചുമതലയുള്ള വൈസ്‌ പ്രസിഡന്റ്‌ ജാനിസ്‌ മാഹോൻ ഉപകരണത്തെ വിശേഷിപ്പിക്കുന്നത്‌ ചുരുൾനിവരുന്ന സ്‌ക്രീനോടുകൂടിയ ഒരു ഐഫോണെന്നാണ്‌. ഭാരമേറിയ ഭൂപടങ്ങളുടെ സ്ഥാനത്ത്‌   ഒരു ചെറുഉപകരണം മത​‍ിയാകുമെന്നത്‌ സൈനികർക്ക്‌ വലിയ ആശ്വാസമാവും.

മിനിസ്ക്രീനിനെ വെല്ലുന്ന പുസ്തകങ്ങൾ

സംസ്കാരവികാസത്തെ അനിമേറ്റഡ്‌ പ്രതലങ്ങളിലേക്ക്‌ നയിക്കുകയാണ്‌ ഇ-പേപ്പർ. ആമസോണിന്റെ കിൻഡൽ എന്ന ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്‌ ബുക്ക്‌ റീഡറാണ്‌ ഉദാഹരണം. പേജ്‌ മറിക്കാൻ വേണ്ടിമാത്രമാണ്‌, ഈ ഉപകരണം ഊർജ്ജം ഉപയോഗിക്കുക. ടെക്സ്റ്റ്‌ സെറ്റ്‌ ചെയ്താൽ പിന്നെ ഊർജ്ജംആവശ്യമില്ല. കേംബ്രിഡ്ജ്‌ കേന്ദ്രമാക്കിയ ഇ-ഇങ്ക്‌ എന്ന ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്‌ പേപ്പർ ഡിസ്‌പ്ലേ കമ്പനിയുടെ വൈസ്‌ പ്രസിഡന്റ്‌ (മാർക്കറ്റിങ്‌) ശ്രീരാം പെരുവെമ്പ പറയുന്നത്‌ കമ്പോളത്തിൽ ഇതിനകം തന്നെ 10 വ്യത്യസ്ത ഇ-റീഡറുകളുള്ളതായും രണ്ടോ മൂന്നോ എണ്ണംകൂടി ഉടൻ പുറത്തിറങ്ങുമെന്നുമാണ്‌. ഇപ്പോഴുള്ള പല ഇ-റീഡറുകളും ഘനമേറിയ ഉപകരണങ്ങളാണെങ്കിലും അവ അതിവേഗം ഫ്ലെക്സിബിൾ പ്രതലങ്ങൾക്ക്‌ വഴിമാറുമെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കുന്നു.

പോളിമർ വിഷൻ കഴിഞ്ഞ മേയിൽ റേഡിയസ്‌ എന്ന ആദ്യ പോക്കറ്റ്‌ ഇറീഡർ പുറത്തിറക്കിയിരുന്നു. മടക്കാവുന്ന സ്ക്രീനും ഇ-മെയിൽ പരിശോധിക്കാനുള്ള സൗകര്യവും അടങ്ങിയതായിരുന്നു ഉപകരണം. എപ്സണും എൽജി ഡിസ്പ്ലേയും വലിയ ദിനപത്രത്തിന്റെ വലിപ്പമുള്ള നിറത്തോടുകൂടിയ ഇ-പേപ്പർ പ്രോട്ടോടൈപ്പ ​‍്തയ്യാറാക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ട്‌.

'ചത്ത കടലാസിന്റെ' പരിമിതികൾ മറികടന്ന്‌ എല്ലാ 'സ്മാർട്ട്‌ സർഫേസി'ലും ഇ-ഇങ്ക്‌ ഉപയോഗിക്കുക എന്നതാണ്‌ ലക്ഷ്യമെന്ന്‌ പെരുവെമ്പ പറയുന്നു. വരിക്കാർക്ക്‌ അവർ തിരഞ്ഞെടുത്ത വാർത്താ പത്രങ്ങളുടെ ഏറ്റവും ഒടുവിലത്തെ അപ്‌ഡേറ്റ്‌ ഉൾപ്പടെ യഥാസമയം കാണാനാകുന്ന ഉപകരണമാണ്‌ ശ്രീരാമിന്റെ സ്വപ്നം.

പുസ്തകങ്ങൾക്കായി 9.5 കോടി മരങ്ങളാണ്‌ ഒരുവർഷം മുറിക്കേണ്ടിവരുന്നത്‌.  മാസികകൾ ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്കലായി വിതരണം ചെയ്യാനായാൽ വർഷം തോറും 3.5 കോടി മരങ്ങളെയെങ്കിലും മഴുവിൽനിന്ന്‌ രക്ഷിക്കാം. സാങ്കേതികവിദ്യ വൃക്ഷസൗഹൃദസമൂഹമാക്കി ലോകത്തെ മാറ്റും.

ഉടുപ്പിലും സൗരോർജ്ജ പാളി

പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്‌ ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സിന്റെ വിപ്ലവകരമായ മറ്റൊരു തുറവിടം താങ്ങാനാവുന്ന സൗരോർജ്ജ പാളികളുടെ ഉത്പാദനമാണ്‌. സിലിക്കോൺ അധിഷ്ഠിത സോളാർ പാനലുകളുടെ ഇൻസ്റ്റാളേഷൻ ചെലവ്‌ തിരിച്ചുപിടിക്കാൻ ഇപ്പോൾ 10 വർഷമെങ്കിലും വേണമെന്നാണ്‌ രസതന്ത്രത്തിനുള്ള 2000 ലെ നോബേൽ സമ്മാന ജേതാവും യൂണിവേഴ്സിറ്റി ഓഫ്‌ കാലിഫോർണിയയിലെ ഭൗതികശാസ്ത്ര പ്രൊഫസറുമായ അലൻ ഹീഗർ പറയുന്നത്‌.

ചെലവേറിയ സിലിക്കൺ സൗരോർജ്ജ പാളികളുടെ സ്ഥാനത്ത്‌ ജൈവ സൗരോർജ്ജ പാളികൾ വികസിപ്പിക്കാൻ കൊണാർക എന്ന കമ്പനിയെ സഹായിക്കുന്നുണ്ട്‌, ഹീഗർ. അവയുടെ നിർമ്മാണച്ചെലവ്‌ ഗണ്യമായി കുറയ്ക്കാനാവുന്ന സാങ്കേതികവിദ്യ ആവശ്യമാണെന്ന്‌ ഹീഗർ പറയുന്നു.

പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്‌ പാനലുകൾ ഒടിച്ചുവളയ്ക്കാമെന്നതിനാൽ മേൽക്കൂരയിൽ പാകുന്ന ഓടുകളിലും എന്നുംകൊണ്ടുനടക്കുന്ന ബാഗുകളിലും എന്തിന്‌, വസ്ത്രങ്ങളിൽ പോലും തുന്നിപ്പിടിപ്പിക്കാനാവുമെന്ന്‌ ഹീഗർ ചൂണ്ടിക്കാട്ടി. നാളെയോരുവേള, നിങ്ങളുടെ തോൾസഞ്ചിയിലെ പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്‌ സോളാർ പാനലിൽ നിന്ന്‌ സെൽഫോൺ ചാർജ്ജ്‌ ചെയ്യുന്ന കാലം വിദൂരമല്ല.

നേർത്ത സ്ക്രീനുകൾ, വീർത്ത കമ്പോളം

'കൂൾ ഫാക്ടർ' മാറ്റിനിർത്തിയാൽ പ്ലാസ്റ്റിക്‌ അധിഷ്ഠിത ഇലക്‌ട്രോണിക്സിന്റെ പ്രധാന മെച്ചം അവയുടെ നിർമ്മാണത്തിലെ 'എളുത'യാണ്‌.

അസംസ്കൃത വസ്തുക്കൾ അധികമില്ലെന്നതാണ്‌ പ്രധാന അനുഗ്രഹം. ഫലത്തിൽ എൽസിഡി ഡിസ്പ്ലേ പോലെ കൂടുതൽ സമയവും ഊർജ്ജവും ചെലവഴിച്ച്‌ ചെറുചെറുഭാഗങ്ങൾ കൂട്ടിച്ചേർത്ത്‌ നിർമ്മിക്കുന്ന രീതിക്ക്‌ പകരം ഇലക്ട്രോണിക്സ്‌ ദിനപത്രംപോലെ റോളുകളായി 'അച്ചടിക്കാം'. ഈ ഗുണം ഒഎൽഇഡിയുടെ നിർമ്മാണച്ചെലവ്‌ ഭാവിയിൽ ഗണ്യമായി കുറയ്ക്കും.

വ്യത്യസ്തപ്രതലങ്ങളിൽ ചെലവുകുറച്ചും കാര്യക്ഷമതയോടെയും നിറംവിതറാവുന്ന ഒരു 'നോസിൽ പ്രിന്റർ' കറതീർത്തിറക്കുന്നതിനുള്ള ശ്രമങ്ങളിലായിരുന്നു, വർഷങ്ങളായി, തങ്ങളെന്ന്‌ കാലിഫോർണിയയിലെ സാന്റ മോണിക്കയിലുള്ള ഡ്യുപോണ്ട്‌ ഒഎൽഇഡീസ്‌ ഗ്ലോബൽ ബിസിനസ്‌ ഡയറക്ടർ വില്യം ഫീഹെരി പറഞ്ഞു.

അപ്പോൾ വെളിച്ചമുണ്ടായി

യുഎസിൽ ഊർജ്ജോപഭോഗത്തിന്റെ എട്ട്‌ ശതമാനവും വൈദ്യുതോപഭോഗത്തിന്റെ 22 ശതമാനവും ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നത്‌ വൈദ്യുത വിളക്കുകൾ തെളിക്കാനാണ്‌. ഈ പശ്ചാത്തലത്തിൽ വേണം ജൈവഎൽഇഡി ലൈറ്റിങ്‌ പാനലുകൾ വികസിപ്പിക്കാനായി യൂണിവേഴ്സൽ ഡിസ്‌പ്ലേയുമായി 2 മില്യൻ ഡോളറിന്റെ (8.4 കോടിരൂപ) ദ്വിവർഷ കരാറിൽ ഏർപ്പെട്ട യുഎസ്‌ ഊർജ്ജ വകുപ്പിന്റെ നടപടിയെ കാണാൻ.

കോംപാക്ട്‌ ഫ്ലൂറസന്റ്‌ ലൈറ്റുകളേക്കാൾ നേർത്തതും ശേഷിയേറിയതും ഏത്‌ പ്രതലത്തിലും പിടിപ്പിക്കാനോ അച്ചടിക്കാനോ കഴിയുന്നതുമാകും അവ.

പകൽ സുതാര്യവും രാത്രിയിൽ പ്രകാശം പുറപ്പെടുവിക്കുന്നതുമായ ജനാലപ്പാളികൾ വലിയ താമസമില്ലാതെ യാഥാർത്ഥ്യമാകുമെന്നാണ്‌ പ്രതീക്ഷ.

The most time consuming part of getting this up and running on Windows was actually just getting KDE compiled in the first place (emerge hates me). After that, it took about 10 lines of code and a few tweaks to CMakeLists.txt and it works.

Well, I say it works, but if I were more honest I'd say I managed to get the clocks to appear once out of many attempts in Firefox, and to grab a quick screenshot before I started trying to interact with them and brought everything crashing down. So, if you want to try this out yourself, be warned: you'll need a lot of patience to do all the tweaking needed to get it working, and then it'll still eat your babies.

Source code is in the same git repository as last time. See the README file included for barely-comprehensible instructions on how to destroy your soul.

When I blogged about this originally, there were lots of comments from people worrying about the security implications. I'd like to write about that in more detail, but I don't have enough time, so it will have to wait for another day. For now I'll just point out one thing: it is only a proof-of-concept at this stage. Obviously if this ever becomes a finished product, there will be security in place to stop plasmoids from the web interacting with your local computer in inappropriate ways - it will not work like Microsoft's ActiveX, but much more like Adobe Flash.

Generalmente, sólo compro en El Corte Inglés cuando tengo un regalo de urgencia y tengo una tarjeta de crédito. Ya se sabe, dinero de plástico duele menos.

Hace unos días estuve con Borja y Roberto en El Corte Inglés de Preciados, en Madrid, y descubrí que a pesar de los carísimos precios, el mareo después de atravesar la sección de Perfumería y la dificultad por encontrar cosas que buscas, estos grandes almacenes tienen algo positivo.

Roberto quiere comprar una tele de plasma de esas grandotas e hiper-nítidas. El procedimiento es el siguiente: acude a la sección de Electrónica, donde un señor con corbata que te habla de usted te enseña toda la gama de televisores y explica con gran lujo de detalles las virtudes de unas, los defectos de otras, que si para esas pulgadas el ojo humano es incapaz de detectar toda la resolución del HD... en fin, que sales bien instruído. Después, preguntas el precio de la que te gusta: "1.000 euros", te dicen. Acto seguido, como hizo Rob, te acercas a los ordenadores expuestos en esa misma planta y con conexión a internet. Abres el navegador, buscas esa misma pantalla en pixmanía o reedcon, dos tiendas de electrónica online, y ves que esa misma tele que te han explicado con toda concrección y que incluso has podido tocar cuesta 750 euros.

Después, sólo tienes que esperar un par o tres de días y tendrás esa misma tele de la que te han informado en El Corte Inglés. La misma, pero por 250 euros menos.

Es el consejo del día.

Fedeli alla roadmap stabilita, gli sviluppatori di KDE hanno reso disponibile la versione 4.1.1 del noto desktop environment; trattandosi di un rilascio manutentivo (per le novità bisognerà attendere gennaio) sono presenti numerose correzioni: KHTML, Konqueror, Plasma, Okular, Gwenview e KMail, in particolare, risultano essere più stabili e preformanti.

Per informazioni sulla disponibilità di pacchetti binari per la vostra distribuzione fate riferimento a questa pagina.

[via: phoronix.com || ossblog.it]

Del 3 al 5 de Setiembre 2008
Objetivos:
• Debatir posibles líneas de promoción del arte medial y propuestas desde eventos como el Festival VAE, así como desde centros culturales, galerías y museos.
• Constituir una red de apoyo al Festival VAE 11 – Julio 2009
• Constitución del primer Consejo Directivo de los Festivales VAE y designación de la Asociación Cultural a cargo de la dirección de la 11va edición.
• Formalización de la Asociación Cultural Festival VAE

Ver la Programación en Realidadvisual.org

My View is that it's a great product and all, but why do I want an Apple TV when I have my movies on my iPod & iPhone.

Sure, it's great to have when you want to just sit on the couch, but is $229 all really that worth it?

In my opinion, I can put that money towards an iMac. I could just rent a movie.

For you people who have no idea what I'm talking about, An Apple TV is a box that connects wirelessly over a Wi-Fi Network that plays videos and movies that are in your iTunes Library on your TV.

It's great but it's a waste of money in my opinion. I have the movies on my iPod for a reason!!

Tell Me What You Think By Leaving A Comment.

Here's a Picture of the Apple TV:

We in no way whatsoever are associated with Apple INC.

Apple TV and Apple are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.

Baba has contracted a raging case of alt-itis over the long Labor Day weekend, using the time to create a female NT Babaente. Running through the quests of newbee island gave us to chance to refresh our knowledge of the place and discover a few useful shortcuts and tips.

The Shortcuts

The shortcuts are all a variation on one theme, jumping down from the upper level of the island to the lower levels. To complete the needed tasks and missions on the island, Newbees have to do a great deal of running back and forth from the upper level to the several beach locations.

The first shortcut is found on the small bridge on which the Unicorn soldier and the medic are standing. When going from say Travis Molen near the whompa tunnel entrance to the beach or the docks, run to this point and jump over the side and you will find yourself in the depression where the two beach tunnels exit near the up ramp, so this saves running down the winding ramp.

[caption id="attachment_185" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Stair jump, shortcut to docks."][/caption]

The next shortcut is a bit more technical, but easy once mastered. Jump up on the left wall of the ramp going up to the area with Travis Molen and move to the top, then turn left and face the wire fence. Run a step or two and jump and you should clear the fence and be on a large ledge that you can then jump from to quickly reach any part of the docks. This one is big timesaver when farming melted circuit boards.

[caption id="attachment_186" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Back to the crash site shortcut."][/caption]

The third shortcut is to get from the Travis Molen area back to the crash site. Run to the path that leads to the landing pads, when you get to the T where the path intersects with another, jump over the side and bingo, your close to where you started. Another variation is to use jumping down to the beach as an emergency exit when swarmed by roller rats or bots on the landing pads. This can be very useful on the kill the saboteur mission. Sneak onto the landing pad past the roller rats to the saboteur and take out the saboteur. If aggroed by the roller rats jump over the side to escape. The entire terraformed area just past the landing pads has one continuous ledge from which you can reach any part of the beach.

General ICC Shuttleport mission tip: Don't try to complete the sided armor quests from Travis Molen first thing. The mobs involved are way to high for the damage you can do and your pitiful health at the start. Squishy toons should instead spend some time just killing easy mobs on the beach and level up to level 10. Do some of the other easy quests, like the monster parts for health kits one. Buy your first beginners nano collection with proceeds from farming cargo driods on the docks for melted circuit boards.

Bonus tip: Even though the patch that enabled the social tab implies that things worn in the social tab do not function, if you equip a backpack on the social tab back slot, you get it's full use. If functions exactly as normal, you can open a window, put things in or retrieve them, so you get the benefit of having another backpack to carry stuff, without using an inventory slot.

Baba has always envied those impressive nukes NT's have and could resist the lure no longer. Of course there was some major play style differences right from the beginning. Yes your freshly minted NT comes with a pistol, but it's rather wimpy. The damage it does is so small that it takes much longer to kill a mob with, than an NT's health will support. With very little health to loose, NT's need a faster way to do damage, and that is where their combat nanos come in. They have lots of different damage nanos, that vary in the type of damage and can be single mob or area of affect type damage.

From the island Babaente met up with Baba in Athens where Baba fixed her up with a few very modest twinks. An infusion of credits to buy some starter implants, plus a 3 slot belt, a pair of 8-15 NCU memories, a IQ ring (% Add Xp 2), and a capsule of thin blood (Body Dev. 2). In return Babaente contributed to the cause by presenting Baba with his much wanted range meter, something he missed when he started out due to it's being counter intuitive. How could a range meter do a melee fighter any good? It is not logical, but it does increase your chance of a critical hit by 1%.

Babaente popped into the Athens subway and hit up a violent vagabond for a vagabonds coat for the token add all def 35. Next she made her way to a general store and acquired and installed a set of QL10-20 store bought implants. Next stop was the nano section where she collected about 10 nanos which she has a reasonable expectation of being able to equip before hitting level 25. To help pay for it, she did the bio-communicator quest and used it to create blood plasma from the rats killed doing Tibors quest. She just resold the armor rewards as it is not as good as the sided island armor that levels.

This all done, it was time to hit the subway in earnest. For a while she dabbled in the beginning section just before you get to the strikers. She could level off the various bots and muggers there. She also hooked up several times with singletons to form a pair team, which increased the leveling rate. When she reached level 13 she the stopped for the night. The next day, after leveling up her armor and morphing memory, she re-entered the subway with her looking for team checked on. She picked up several teams. Things were very par for AO at this point with the usual mixture of really good and gallant players sprinkled with goofballs and 6th graders. The last team was the perfect leveling sweet spot for her at that time. Her 3 person team met up with another 3 person team in the striker room, so they formed just one 6 person team. With the strikers spawning quickly, team members were leveling at a good clip. When things petered out, she had reached level 15. The team broke up in the slow crumble style. One person ran out of ammo, so left for the store, another did the same a few minutes later, then another just plain vanished. That left just Babaente, a crat, and one enforcer. Baba quickly learned that anything less than a full team in the striker room is not a good idea.

Before logging off, Baba had to take a few minutes to allocate out her new IP. By now was able to equip all of her nanos, and could also now replace her dreaded light bar with a much more stylish Floating Torch.

In the meantime, Baba has been taking a break, having gotten a bit burned out hunting the same 5-6 dynas hoping for a drop of the dyna only Skill of Highlander. He had decided he would rather be leveling, so if you have one to sell, give Baba a tell.

On y montre en démonstration sur le plancher une télé de 11 pouces pour 2 499$.  Le modèle XEL1.

Oui ça fait dispendieux du pouce je l'admets.

Le téléviseur en question fonctionne avec la technologie OLED (diode électroluminescente organique) et a une épaisseur que de 3mm et possède un ratio de contraste de 1 000 000 : 1.

Même à un angle de 178 degrés, les couleurs et le contraste sont épatants.

D'accord 2 499$ pour 11 pouces.  Mais imaginez que vers 2011 un modèle 42 pouces pourrait peut-être se vendre 3 000$.  Vous verrez que les téléviseurs plasma et le lcd qu'on connaît aujourd'hui auront l'air de véritables dinosaures.

En quoi consiste la technologie OLED?
La réponse chez Sony.ca:  OLED est l'acronyme anglais qui désigne une diode électroluminescente organique (DELO). Le mot « organique » fait référence à un matériau organique. Le carbone est à la base de toute matière organique. Des exemples de substances à base de carbone comprennent le sucre, le bois et la majorité des plastiques. « LED » est l'acronyme anglais de diode électroluminescente (DEL) et il exprime le processus de conversion de l'énergie électrique en lumière. Il y a deux types d'OLED : une petite molécule et un polymère. Sony utilise le type à petite molécule à cause de sa durée de vie plus grande.

Ça serait la même technologie qui serait utilisé pour les écrans du portable d'Apple MacBook Air.

So Saturday night was the annual Julius Events College Reunion Party. Hooray. The theme was 'music'. No, this was not my idea. My idea was a baby farm animals theme, but no one seemed to like this. Our events class was responsible for organising the night. And although i was pretty bored throughout the night, i think it went quite well. I lured in three on my own guests (Lisa, Emily, Alison) with the offer of an open bar. Anyways, this post is pretty picture heavy as i took some photos of the college.

These are my two of my friends/bitches at college. We claimed the meeting room as our dressing room for the night.

And this is me and Steph. We worked the bar at the beginning of the night. I was (not so) secretly hoping that someone would come up and say to me 'Do you come with the drink??' in which i would reply, "Oh You!!" and flip my wrist. This never happened :(

Here are two of my three guests, just chillin, yo.

Here are some photos of the decorations we put in place.

And for those of you who are interested in lights, we had some pretty awesome ones. Lots and lots and lots of moving lights.

Yeahhh.. And now back into the routine of another boring week.

I was one of the few individuals (actually, I don't know the precise number of individuals) who contacted the author after reading the book.  It was then that I learned that he sent out S.T.R.R.I.P. Tease bulletins to those who contacted him, free of charge.  (S.T.R.R.I.P. = Society To Restore Rationalism In Physics, or something to that effect.  Yes, he was a dirty old man.)  The S.T.R.R.I.P. Tease bulletins were further physics lessons that he had not included in his book.

Monson was/is (I don't know if he is still alive) an atheist and dedicated an entire chapter to debunking religion, but despite that, I had to send him some emails concerning the similarities I found in modern revelations with the physics he was proposing.  Needless to say, finding a spiritual counterpart in his theory didn't make him very happy and he tried to convince me of the errors of my ways.  I had fun corresponding with him and I think it was fun for him, too, as he was getting up there in age and most people just thought of him as "old Monson with the crazy space balls."  (Space balls was a theory he invented to help explain physics phenomena.)

Monson was set in his irreligious ways, and accepted a great deal of mainstream science, while attempting to debunk the rest that he felt did not hold up to rational, physics scrutiny.  He either wasn't aware of the plasma scientists and their experiments, or chose not to consider their results in his model of the Universe.  I believe that he simply didn't know about it.  I also believe that if he had known about it, he probably would not have liked it, as the discoveries plasma scientists make tend to confirm the scriptures, and he, being an atheist, probably would not have liked that very much.  Also, as he tended to ridicule everything he felt was wrong, if plasma science was available to him, and he thought it was erroneous, it probably would have gotten a mention in his book.

Let me just say here and now to Monson, if you are still alive: I thoroughly enjoyed your book and am glad it was written, both for its witticisms and its portrayals of new concepts. And if he is not alive, then to his son and any other surviving family members: Your departed relative made an impression for the better upon at least one individual on this planet.  I hope one day someone takes up and finishes his foundational work.

Physics Is Constipated (Intellectually That Is)

That is the title of Monson's book.  Even if the content was horrendous, the title alone would be hard to forget.  To his credit, though, it was engaging and fun.  Heck, even the front and back cover artwork and text were thought-provoking.  But it has been many years since I last read it.  So, what was my surprise when along comes an electrical theorist, Wallace Thornhill, proposing an electric gravity model in an electric universe and using words that seemingly conveyed the same types of thoughts as Monson?

Here is Thornhill's shortened, but nevertheless interesting paper:

Electric Gravity in an Electric Universe

Gravity, Einstein and Scientific Saints

Gravity is the most familiar force. We are subject to it every day of our lives. Newton gave us his ‘law of gravity,’ which describes its effect but doesn’t explain it. “I frame no hypotheses,” he wrote.  (Thornhill, first paragraph of Electric Gravity in an Electric Universe.)

Unlike Newton, Monson actually attempted to explain gravity.  And his explanation, using only two material types,  which he called structured space and structured matter, made pretty darn good sense.  Thornhill seems to build upon this Monsonian base—has he read Monson's book?—, including the all-important electrical connection.

Einstein wasn’t so prudent when he introduced his “postulates.”  Unfortunately, his unreal geometry doesn’t explain gravity either. The usual demonstration using heavy steel balls on a rubber sheet to represent ‘gravity wells’ relies on gravity as its own explanation!  (Thornhill, first paragraph of Electric Gravity in an Electric Universe.)

Thornhill throughout this article does the same thing Monson did: show the Einsteinian age as the death of rational physics.  Monson is a bit harsher in his denunciation of Einstein, whereas Thornhill at least gives Einstein the benefit of doubting his own words:

How has this situation arisen? In the 20th century technology perfected wireless communication and computers and got man into space, while fundamental science fell deeper into a ‘black hole’ of complication, illogicality and metaphysics. I consider the principal cause has been the usurping, since Einstein, of natural philosophy and physics by theoretical mathematicians. Meanwhile Einstein, perhaps to his credit, remained sceptical of his own work. (Thornhill, 6th paragraph of Electric Gravity in an Electric Universe, emphasis mine.)

Monson spoke of the scientific community with disdain as being made up of "scientific saints" and "scientific priests."  In this paper, Thornhill quotes Mike Disney in his footnotes as saying:

The most unhealthy aspect of cosmology is its unspoken parallel with religion. Both deal with big but probably unanswerable questions. The rapt audience, the media exposure, the big book-sale, tempt priests and rogues, as well as the gullible, like no other subject in science.

The Aether and the Michelson-Morley Experiment

Monson was a believer in the Aether.  He rejected the concept that space was filled with nothing.  In his view, there were but two elements that made up the entire Universe: structured space and structured matter and the interaction between these two elements as they competed for the same volume of space accounted for all of the seen and unseen energy manifestations around us.  He believed in simplification as the key to the promulgation of the sciences among the masses.  The structured space was the motive element whereas the sctructured matter was basically just pushed around.  Each element was completely opposite in its qualities.  For example, one could be compressed and deformed like a hollow balloon whereas the other was a dense ball of super hard, indestructible stuff.  There was no volume of space that was not occupied by either structured space or structured matter.

Sound familiar?  When I brought to his attention Lehi's writings of that which acts and that which is acted upon (see 2 Ne. 2: 13-14) or the Lord's revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants about the Light of Christ filling the immensity of space (see D&C 88: 12), etc., he wasn't too happy, but I was pleased to see that he had come to these conclusions on his own, independent of the word of God, merely by observing nature.

Monson's major problem was the Michelson-Morley experiment, which had apparently failed to detect the aether.  His solution was a modification to that experiment that, in his estimation, would have shown that the aether does, in fact, exist.  (He believed that the experiment failed because the experimenters didn't know what to look for.)  At any rate, as the experiment had been discredited as a failure, any newbie (such as Monson) contending that the aether was real was laughed at as a crackpot.

Thornhill in this paper brings up the same Michelson-Morley experiment, adding, though, that Dayton Miller repeated the experiment and found an aether drift! Monson, apparently, was not aware of that fact, as Miller was written out of the text books, which would have helped his case immensely.

Structure, structure, everywhere

As stated above, Monson believed the Universe was composed of structured material of two types.  Thornhill, likewise, addresses the Universe as structured, even taking the electron and breaking it down into smaller structures called subtrons.

Gravity, Electromagnetism and Inertia

Both men tie gravity, electromagnetism and inertia to the same common source: the aether.  Whereas Monson contended that the aether "deformed balloons" pushed back at structured matter to produce gravity, Thornhill explains that the minute, structural, electric dipoles align in one direction to produce gravity.  In either case, all manifestation of any type is explained from a single source.

Gravity is a Variable

Both Monson and Thornhill come to the same conclusion: gravity varies depending upon the aether environment. Monson described the aether environment in terms of compression and torsion and Thornhill describes it in terms of charge and electricity.

The speed of light and gravity

Both men also address the near instantaneous speed of gravity, no matter how far the distances, and the slowness of light.  Both Monson and Thornhill address the e=mc2 equation, including when the speed of light is put into the equation.  Neither man gets time slowing down or Alice in Wonderland Effects.  Everything remains based in reality and rationalism.  However, Monson, again, explains things using compression and torsion, while Thornhill explains it in electrical terms.  Both men, though, make sense.

Mass

Monson and Thornhill both explain mass in terms of the aether environment and not as "quantity of matter."  As a result, this opens up the possibility that mainstream science's expectation of fluffy, spongy or hollow bodies could turn out to be solid and dense while the expectation of solid and dense bodies could turn out to be hollow or spongy.

Thornhill, in fact, draws from recent cometary and asteroid evidence, which should have shown fluffy snowballs (the comets) but instead showed apparently dense rocks, suggesting that our models—of what type of a body ought to produce the gravitational field were are seeing—are inaccurate.  Monson, whose book was written in the 1980's, never had this astronomical data to work from.

Electric Gravity and Hollow Planets

Electric, or aether-generated gravity opens up the very real possibility of the planets being hollow.  The current thoughts on gravity, that it requires a certain amount of matter to have a certain amount of gravity, preclude many planets from being hollow.  They must be solid in order to account for the amount of gravity detected.  So, if gravity is shown to have an electric connection, the main obstacle to hollow planets vanishes altogether.

Although Monson never intended to promote the hollow earth theory, his model could be equally applied to both solid and hollow planets, without destroying it (the model).  Likewise, Thornhill's model is also consistent with hollow spheres or structures, both on the subatomic level and on the planetary or galactic scale.  The electric universe theorists usually do not categorically state that their model favors a hollow planets scenario, as they are marginalized by the mainstream scientists enough, as it is, but as one reads more and more of their findings, it becomes apparent that it does.

Black holes

The major break between Monson and Thornhill is their opinion of black holes.  Whereas Monson accepted that black holes do, in fact, exist, Thornhill and the other plasma scientists think it's just a mathematical invention, an imaginary device that has no counterpart in the real world.  But, again, Monson didn't have the plasma data to work with.  If he had, he might have discarded the notion of black holes, too.

LDS Scientists: Pay Attention

The plasma theorists and scientists are on the cutting edge.  Despite being largely ignored by the mainstream, they are forging ahead and breaking new ground.  It would be to our benefit (as an LDS community) to pay attention to their findings.  The day may come that we will have to rebuild society.  If and when that happens, a proper understanding of all physics findings will be needed to correct the errors perpetuated by the current scientific community, your non-LDS peers, otherwise we LDS will be no better off or no more enlightened than any other people on the planet, regardless of the gospel knowledge we possess.  The electrical connection may be the most important of all.

The keys to correcting the errors are the scientific anomalies, which invalidate many theories.  Often we don't hear about these anomalies.  They are briefly reported and then swept under the rug.  Out of sight, out of mind and the current popular scientific theory remains intact.  Inform yourself about the anomalies. Bring them up, focus on them and seek to correct the errors.  A knowledge of the plasma research will help as that field of research addresses anomalies.

Previous Plasma Theology article: The hollow earth theory, the plasma model and Mormon theology

Complete List of Articles authored by LDS Anarchist

Know where I look? :x

My jewelry box. :cry: I have been reduced to searching all the places where I may have taken off a ring or misplaced a broken bracelet. The saddest part is that in some cases the item may not be broken or missing stones, I just may no longer wear it for whatever reason.

Oh yeah, things could be worse. What if I didn't have my only possessions worth anything to sell? What if I have to go sell plasma instead? :evil:

What if I just slapped the next person who tells me "it could always be worse"? Who says this to an obviously broken person? Is this supposed to make it all better now? "Oh, you know you are right. It could always be worse. I could have been born with craniopagus parasiticus".  {Look it up...I'm not feeling nice enough to tell you today}  :twisted:

Why can't people ever understand? :?

No one ever considers how things could and should be better. I understand the need to be able to look down and think "well at least I'm not that person", but still.... :(

http://www.last.fm/music/Melissa+Etheridge/_/Bring+Me+Some+Water

Looking around various websites before and have heard news that Panasonic are starting production on an 150 Inch TV in 2009! It is a massive plasma with 2160x4096-pixel. You can't really tell from this image but its huge!

The guys at Engadget reckon that the unit will cost $4,400US (£2,395) and is available in Japan from November.

Now, that's all well and good and you've got to admire the Japanese for their innovation. However, it would be really nice if the Big boys (Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba etc), rather than making the TVs one centimetre thick or 103 inches along the diagonal, make them cheaper.

Yes, I realise that with innovation the cheaper end of the market gets better too but I don't want a QangbigDong 37" Plasma with pretend HD upscaling for £300 from Asda. I want a reasonably priced Tosh, Pan or Sony unit that's got true abilities, looks good and performs well.

Is that really too much to ask?