Bing Hitting the Bullseye?

Gaining market share over Google. And there is one more thing about bing… But this strikes me as a bit odd.

I have been using bing more and more recently, and there is one thing that feels off. Let me explain. When you search for images on bing you can change the settings, for example you can choose the size, layout, style, color, etc.

And like with most modern search engines you can filter the results. This saves you from having to see any unwanted image results. You can choose any one of the following filters:

• Strict – Filter sexually explicit content using a strict filter.
• Moderate – Filter sexually explicit content using a moderate filter.
• Off – Do not filter search results.

Do you see what I mean? Maybe not… While you can filter out the sexually explicit content, you can’t do anything for violent images. Does this show a complacency to violence in our culture? Or has bing taken the effort to filter these out for you a head of time without the need for you to change any filters? If this is the case I have seen fairly disturbing images slipping into normal search queries. This in and of itself isn’t a deal breaker, I still use bing, however, I have to ask why they wouldn’t allow you to filter these as well.

Ubuntu 10.04 - Lucid Lynx

I had actually planned on posting about this two weeks ago when we upgraded to Lucid Lynx (Ubuntu 10.04) (take the tour here). Well, as you can see, that didn’t happen. A week or two late isn’t bad since it gave me a chance to look over the new release a little more.

The first thing that I noticed about Lucid is that it loads and shuts down lightning fast. This has to be the fastest operating system that I have ever used, and it just got faster. Now I can start the machine up and get some apps up and running in under a minute. Compare that to the Windows machine that I also use for certain tasks, and it hasn’t even logged in yet. Talk about a pleasant computing experience.

Ubuntu Lucid Lynx on Start

While we have been running under various Linux operating systems, for the better part of a decade Ubuntu has to be our favorite. And the nice thing about it is that it’s for just about anyone. It doesn’t matter where your computer skills are at, you can be up and running under Ubuntu in a matter of minutes. As their website says:

“At the core of the Ubuntu philosophy is the belief that computing is for everyone and access should be free and complete whatever your economic or physical circumstances. Ubuntu is one of the most accessible desktop operating systems around.”

And they hold true to that philosophy.

Ubuntu is now easier than ever before for people to get into and use.

The new accessibility is also one of the downsides of the new fsck. If you’ve run Ubuntu before, you will probably be familiar with the scanning process. It periodically runs after a set number of starts (generally 30 unless you’ve changed it). Prior to Lucid Lynx, the scanning process was broken into different stages. Each with its own set number of steps. While this might not have been as simple as a 0-100% system (which is now implemented), it was a lot more useful.

The new disk scanning process is very simple. You don’t know what it is doing, just how many more percent there is until it is done. Which doesn’t really tell you anything about the actual scanning process.

We have Ubuntu 10.04 installed on several machines. One of them is a notebook. Things go fine until the scan reaches 70%, and then things start to crawl by. Since things always (at least in our case) begin to progress slowly at the same spot on all machines, it makes me think that the percentage is merely there to communicate with users that “something” is currently happening. Rather than the previous scan that actually told you what was happening.

The other thing that I have noticed with the scanning process, this is something that never happened before, was that it locks up. Several days ago when it was scanning the hard drive it locked up at 99%.

UPDATE: Not long after I posted about the noticeable slowdown in fsck the problem seems to be fixed. Recently I rant the check again, and there was a noticeable increase in speed. Not just within the current release but also compared to all other versions of fsck that I have used. This is a very nice surprise, and just goes to show you that Ubuntu gets things done, and it gets them done fast.

One of the nicest additions to the OS is the Ubuntu One Music Store. If you’ve ever tried to get iTunes to run under Linux, you would know that unless you use a virtualized Windows install, it doesn’t work very well. But then again, who needs iTunes?

The Ubuntu One Music Store offers more in the lines of quality and usability than iTunes. First, the audio files are higher quality than those you’ll find under Apple’s store. We have bought quite a few songs through the new service that have ranged from 256-320 kbps, whereas the same songs on iTunes are only a maximum of 256 kbps. This makes a noticeable difference when you listen to your music on your iPod, etc., especially compared to the lower quality iTunes files. All music bought through the Ubuntu music store is DRM-free and does not limit the number of times you can burn it to CD.

Songs are priced at $.99 to $1.49, and it isn’t dependent on the quality.

Another reason buying music from Ubuntu’s own store is the fact that 50% of Canonical’s proceeds go to the SOSLynx charity. SOSLynx is dedicated to the conservation the most endangered feline species in the world, the Iberian Lynx.

Ubuntu Linux Gaming

The only thing that I would hope they include in a future release is the option to pay through Click&Buy, since adding another payment method makes buying music more convenient. While we didn’t install any of the test builds of Ubuntu 10.04, I do know that they actually had this feature integrated at one point. So let’s just hope they get it worked out and put it into a coming release of the store. They are sure to see an increased number of sales when they do.

UPDATE: You can now buy music through Click&Buy as well as several other options, which I can confirm works great!

This post wasn’t intended to be a complete review of all of Ubuntu’s new features. We’ll leave that up to you. But it was meant to cover some of the things that have hopped out during daily use.

If you haven’t tried Ubuntu or have yet to upgrade, now would be a good time to start!

Ubuntu 10.04 Video

Open Source Software

I read recently that a powerful US copyright lobby is likening OS (Open Source software) to piracy or worse. Alright, we need to put this into perspective, so you can realize just how absurd this comparison is. Piracy is when somebody’s copyrighted content, whether it is music, movies, video games, books etc. is taken and distributed. We won’t go into any big detail, you know what I am talking about.

Open source software on the other hand is where a programmer, or a team of programmers, create an application. This can be in the form of a browser, such as Firefox, an operating system, such as Linux (any flavor), or a graphics application (Gimp, Blender, MyPaint, Inkscape…) etc. and make it open to the community. Have these people stolen anything? No. Have they distributed somebody else’s content? No!

What they have done is made their intellectual property available to people like you and me. These people give many others the opportunity to do something they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. And chances are they have contributed more than you might think.

If you run a website, or even visit websites, you have come into contact with open source software in various forms. You don’t realize it, but the majority of the web is run through the open source database MySQL. Not to mention WordPress, Apache, RedHat, CentOS etc. etc. etc.

Meanwhile, it’s not uncommon for commercial applications to “borrow” code and inspiration. Even Mac OS X is based on the BSD operating system.

Off the top of my head I know of two countries that actively support open source software, one of them is Germany. The second one is Indonesia, which last year sent out a report to all their government departments encouraging them to migrate to open source.

You can read an interesting post from the Technology Blog on the Guardian.co.uk, the title of the article is: When using open source makes you an enemy of the state

Is this the end of open source software? That isn’t very likely, it will take more than one greedy corporation lobbying to outlaw what people are allowed to do with their IP.

Leonar3Do

I saw this earlier today and I was really impressed with how the idea has evolved. I saw something like this several years ago in a documentary and at that point it was closer to science fiction than reality. That has changed.

But before I go on I should probably explain what “this” is. Leonar3Do is a creates virtual space in front of your computer monitor. You can more it around and you can look at it from different angles as long as you are wearing the headset.

The device was created to allow you to sculpt on your computer, this actually isn’t anything new. There have been applications that allow you to do this for years but you were always restricted to the screen. Now with the creation of Leonar3Do that is no longer the case.

To get a better idea of what this means you can take a look at this video that demonstrates the technology better.

Black Dragon Sculpture

I should mention that this video is a mock-up, you can’t film the effect and you can’t see it unless you are wearing the glasses. My guess is we’ll have to wait a couple more years for something like that.

You can learn more on the official website, Leonar3Do.com. And if you are wondering how much this is going to cost, it may disappoint you to learn that it will be over $1000.

Microsoft Data Mining Patent

Microsoft thinks that you are worth a million dollars! And because of that fact Bill Gates, Ray Ozzie and many of the other executives at Microsoft have been issued a patent that allows then to mine your personal data.

This recent patent (okay, the application for the patent was filed in September 2006) that was awarded this week basically layout a system for collecting your personal information. What this “personal data mining” system does is examine your actions and interests based on what they have observed you and others that fall into your category doing. This will allow them to make targeted suggestions. This could be in the form of recommendations on which books to read, movies to see or restaurants to eat at.

While this isn’t much different than what a lot of other companies have been doing, it goes beyond simply making contextually targeted plugs.

As the name implies, it is a method to mine your personal data. As per the patent this includes your:

“personal management information (PIM data), pictures, videos, documents, e-mail, instant messages, addresses, calendar dates/scheduling information (e.g., birthdays, anniversaries, appointments . . . ), voice mail, phone logs, RSS feeds, subscriptions, bookmarks, mail lists, project management features, computing device data, tasks and location data.”

Basically everything that is linked to you falls into this catch all system and it is as good as gold.

The patent also talks about the option to “include a monetization component”. What does this mean? It means you might just land in “an auction to sell information to the highest bidder.”

If you have any interest in reading through the full patent application, you can find it here.

This reminds me of the patent application that Steve Jobs recently filed for OS Advertisement.

His goal/dream for the iPad is that it will bridge the gap between smartphones and laptops. But does the iPad fill this gap? Not really. But we’ll get to that in just a moment. The iPad at first glance looks like a scaled up version of the iPhone. And in some ways it is. First let’s take a look at the dimensions.

The iPad is half an inch thick, which is why many people began referring to it as iSlate. The IPS display is a rather respectable 9.7 inches. In comparison, the iPhone has a 3.5 inch display. The whole devices weighs 1.5 pounds.

Apple iPad

According to Steve Jobs, the iPad has a battery life of 10 hours, and can stay in stand-by for one month.

Hardware specs are also pretty decent. The processor is a 1 GHz Apple A4, which should provide more speed than it does. As it stands, the iPad is not capable of multitasking. What does that mean? Well, if you’re reading this, you probably have your browser open. If you checked your inbox, your email client may be open. Then there is whatever other programs you normally use on your computer. With the iPad you can only use one application at a time. Disappointing, isn’t it?

I really don’t see this as a limitation of the hardware. Either the OS can’t handle the demands, or won’t. In either case this is something that Apple will have to fix in a future release.

As with most of the other hardware, Apple makes the iPad come in multiple different flavors, these range from the 16GB to the 64GB versions, with the price increasing for each one. The 16GB version costs $499, with the 32GB version jumping to $599. If you want the big version with 64GB storage space, you will be looking to spend $699.

The iPad connects over WiFi 802.11n, although some versions come with 3G. The data plans for the device start at $14.99 a month for 250MB of transfer, while the unlimited plan costs the double, $29.99, and you get free access to AT&T hot spots. Unlike the iPhone, there aren’t any contacts you get locked into. Instead it runs on the pre-paid model, which is activated directly through the device.

Some of the other features the iPad comes with are an accelerometer, compass, microphone, speaker, and a 30-pin connect. If you think you’re going to get a camera too, think again. The iPad does not come with a camera. This is rather disappointing, since including one with the device would make sense.

That about sums up the feature list. Does it sound like something you will need to have?

For me there are several issues with the iPad in its current state.

First, it doesn’t offer multitasking, which is a fundamental part of using a computer. If this isn’t changed, it isn’t anything more than a glorified iPhone with a lame name. This is the biggest problem for me with the device. Maybe this won’t bother most of the users, but for anyone that wants to do more than browse the Internet, read some email, and listen to music (not at the same time) this isn’t a viable solution.

Second, the lack of a camera. Apple’s solution for this was two huge adapters that could/should have been built into the device in the first place. Neither of them actually gives the device “real” camera functionality, instead they are only a way to import photos. Here is what Apple has to say about them:

“The Camera Connection Kit gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera. The Camera Connector lets you import your photos and videos to iPad using the camera’s USB cable. Or you can use the SD Card Reader to import photos and videos directly from the camera’s SD card.”

iPad USB Connectors

My verdict, if you’re looking for something bigger than your iPhone, and only care about browsing the Internet, reading your email, and other simple functions then this might be for you. I feel that Apple is trying to bank on the trendiness of their products rather than truly bridge the current gap between smartphones and laptops. If the iPad is their solution, we still have a long way to go.

Peter Shah - Amateur Astronomer

The garage, the basement, the tool shed, guys have their favorite places to tinker around. But that is about all that ever gets done. Tinkering is a good hobby, it keeps us occupied, but what comes out of it? Generally not much.

That is unless you’re amateur astronomer Peter Shah, if that is the case your shed is an astronomer’s dream come true. You see, Peter’s shed is worth more than £20,000, it has a sliding roof, and a modest amount of equipment. His telescope is connected to his home computer so that he can sit back and enjoy what the skies of Britain have to offer.

What is really impressive is that the tool shed astronomers images rival those of Hubble. He has successfully taken photos of the Andromeda Galaxy, Flaming Star Nebula, M33 Pinwheel Galaxy and the Monkey’s head nebula.

To quote Peter Shah: “it just goes to show that a window to the universe is there for all of us – even with the smallest budgets. I had to be patient and take the images over a period of several months because the skies in Britain are often clouded over and you need clear conditions.”

No, I know what you’re saying, “where are the pictures?” And to answer your question, here they are.

On a side note, the images are also being collected into a book for those that would like to own a copy.

Firefox 3.6

Well, it looks like it is time for another release of Firefox. If you haven’t heard, Firefox 3.6 has been released today.

One of the features that I am really happy to see is that the developers have continued to work on the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, further improving performance. If you do a lot or even a little browsing online, you will get a big benefit from the new engine. Many sites today rely heavily on JavaScript, this may include video or social networking sites. But many other websites create a lot of extra overhead by using too many scripts. This is something Firefox has really been improving on, this just goes to show, you can improve a winning system.

When I first started using Firefox more than 4 years ago, I was blown away by how much better it preformed than any of the other browsers I used. Even when IE went from version 6 to version 7 it didn’t change many of the bugs, and there were still a lot of security issues. It wasn’t until version 8 that IE joined the ranks of modern browsers, where FF had been for quite some time.

Getting back to the 3.6 release, another one of the updates that I thought was pretty cool is the inclusion of Personas. This is a really exciting feature that allows you change your theme on the fly, without the need to restart the application. They are also lighter weight than a full blown theme change, so you will be saving some system performance.

Firefox Persona

Coll Firefox Persona

Firefox Tiger Theme

You can get Firefox Personas here.

And if you haven’t downloaded the latest version yet, what are you waiting for? Click here to learn more about version 3.6.

From the Earth to the Moon

Even if you’re not familiar with the concept in Jules Verne’s novel “From the Earth to the Moon”, the space cannon will probably ring some bells. The novel, written in 1865, may not have much to do with the current implementation of the space cannon, however, it can safely be said it inspired it.

Physicist John Hunter, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, thinks it is possible. And if it is, supply runs to the ISS will drastically drop in price. Currently every pound of supplies sent to the International Space Station costs $5000. If the ambitious project is successful, it would reduce the cost to only $250 per pound.

So how does the proposed space cannon work? Well, this is where the plans go from science fiction to something I could personally see being successful.

The project requires that the space cannon be built close to the equator. And here is where it gets really innovative. The cannon will be submerged in the ocean, connected to a huge floating ring. The projectile/spacecraft will be fired into space by heating hydrogen with natural gas to temperatures as high as 2,600° F. This will increase the pressure to 500%, when fired, the half ton payload will be sent off at a respectable 13,000/mph!

To easier visualize what the modern interpretation of the Verne’s space cannon will look like, here is a mock-up.

John Hunter's Space Cannon

Before you get your hopes up, John Hunter’s space cannon will only be used for supplies. The extreme acceleration makes launching people into space impossible. Still, this would be a huge leap forward, heavily cutting supply transport costs.

P.S. The project will cost half a billion dollars to complete. Before you choke, let me just put it this way. If we were to spend the 500,000,000 dollars on sending supplies up to the ISS with the current system, we would only be able to send 100,000 pounds. When the space cannon goes online, it will be able to send up the same amount for only $25,000,000.

Wordpress Offical Logo

If you have been waiting around for the new bug fix release of WordPress your wait is over. WordPress 2.9.1 came out yesterday and fixes several bugs. I had noticed some of these recently and was glad that the WordPress developers were so quick to correct them. There have already been several million downloads of 2.9 alone. You can read more about it here on the offical WP Blog.