Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Google really seems to understand that it’s very useful to have access to information anywhere. Web-based tools like email, word-processors, and spreadsheets have been released allowing for anyone with access to a web browser to get work done. Enter Procore Technologies. They understand how useful it is to have easily accessible tools for multiple people to collaborate. They make software called SitePro for contractors to plan and keep track of construction projects. It can be deployed on a web server and everyone involved can be given their own account based on their responsibilities and the details about the project that they need to know. Everyone involved can communicate with anyone else involved through the SitePro framework. Everyone will be on the same page and there will be no confusion over what is expected. You can try out the software for free, so if it looks like something you might be able to use give it a shot.

As a computer science student it is interesting to note the shift taking place to software running on servers and being interfaced with through a browser.

I did some digging around and found out that there wouldn’t be very many pre-orders accepted. Then I found out that a pre-order doesn’t guarantee anything. All it does is give you a place in line on the day the Wii is released. That would have been pretty good, but the Wii is being released on a Sunday. I don’t shop on Sundays because I don’t think it’s right to make people work on Sundays. That means that a pre-order would be useless because they won’t hold a Wii system for me until Monday morning. I drove over to the local EB Games since I was right near it anyway and at 9:30am there were about 20 people in line outside the store. I thought about taking pictures, but the scene wasn’t as interesting as I was hoping for so I just left. I figure that it’s not that important to get one as soon as it comes out. I think there will be enough to go around that I should be able to get one on Monday, November 20th. Let’s cross our fingers.

From their website:

GameStop and EB Games stores will begin accepting limited pre-orders for the Nintendo Wii console on Friday, October 13, on a first come, first served basis. Due to extremely limited supply, we expect to reach our limit very quickly, most likely in minutes.

Incidentally, I have been asking about when this would happen since the beginning of this week. Last night I popped into EB Games in the mall and they said it wouldn’t happen until next week, but they then quickly added “but check back every day between now and then.” I casually asked how many systems they thought they would be getting and all the workers there got defensive and said it was against their policy to answer such questions. I’m interested to see how many people go for this pre-order. I’ll be at the local EB Games tomorrow at around 9:15 tomorrow morning. We’ll see if there are any other freaks there like me who are going to take the bait. I wonder if they will open early. They don’t normally open until 10am, I believe. I’ll bring a list of 12 local stores and their phone numbers so I can call around if the one closest to me is already out when I get there.

tovid is a set of scripts that makes it easy and painless to convert any video you can play with mplayer to a DVD compliant video and even create a DVD structure to burn onto a disc. These video conversion scripts are amazing. I have used them to convert a PowerPoint slide show that I exported to an AVI file of pictures from my mission in Germany. It’s great to finally get this out of a proprietary format before I can no longer play it. It was created by the missionaries in the Mission Office and was synched up to music.

To get tovid and to learn how to set it up, just go to http://tovid.wikia.com.

According to a blog post a new airless tire with spokes may soon be released for use on consumer automobiles. No more flats? Easier home replacement? I say lemme at em! Thanks to Randy for pointing this story out to me.

The Internet and television has been gearing up for convergence for a long time. Some people thought it was going to happen a long time ago. Only recently have we seen IPTV start to take off. These IPTV shows, with the exception of DLTV, are usually pre-recorded and not intended to be watched live. ACCSelect.com is one company that seeks to change that. If you want to watch ACC Sports, there aren’t too many choices other than going to the school and watching it as it happens. But now you can get, for example, Georgia Tech Sports on ACCSelect.com. There is certainly a market for college sports other than Football. The market may not be big enough for cable companies to carry them, but that’s the beauty of the Internet. The delivery mechanism cuts out the middle-man and allows niche programming to be sold and delivered directly from the producers to the viewers. This is an exciting step in the right direction. Let’s hope that more live content like this becomes available. Finally there is an alternative to the Lowest Common Denominator!

I have worked on some websites and tried to make those pages show up close to the top spot on Google before. This can be very difficult to achieve because the exact algorithms that Google uses are not public knowledge. It is sometimes baffling why a less relevant site comes up above yours. SEO in Austin, help Texas is the specialty of Apogee Search. They are the largest Search Engine Optimization firm in Austin and the fastest growing in all of Texas. It is amazing to me that search engine placement has become so important to companies that they are willing to pay others to help them rise to the top.

I was not aware of this before now, but apparently the Wii might run a version of the Linux kernel. It will also be updatable remotely. From an interview on Nintendo’s website:

Wii is the first system from Nintendo that we can continue to be involved in (via operating system updates) after the customer buys it. This means that Wii will greatly expand and diversify the ways in which people will enjoy games in the future.

This could be exciting. I just hope they don’t use this as a way to ruin everyone’s fun with regards to homebrew games, etc.

I started to learn to program with BASIC. Then I learned C. Now I have a class that requires me to use Java. Java is all about Objects. I find myself struggling to grasp the concept. Just when I think I have it then I find something else that I’m not quite getting. I am working on a simulation program demonstrating preemptive multitasking on a single CPU system. No matter what I do I can’t seem to get rid of redundant methods in two of my classes. There has to be a good way to take care of this problem, but everything I can think of just adds complexity to the program, which is what I’m trying to avoid. Maybe I’ll post again with a solution, if I ever find one, that is.

FineTooth is the fastest and easiest solution for converting paper documents into easily searchable digital information. With their Contract Management Software you have instant access to information no matter where and how the hard-copies are stored. The really interesting part is that their software can read through narrative contracts and automatically index bullet-points, milestones, and dates. This is in the same field of computational linguistics that I’m interested in. It’s amazing that their software can understand these complex documents well enough to pull out this information. We’re getting closer and closer to a robot that can interact with you like C-3PO can. This is exciting stuff!