Claes-Fredrik Mannby

HP TouchSmart

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:21:00 +0000

I saw the HP TouchSmart yesterday and tried it out very briefly. As with Windows CE, I got an immediate sense that there's a huge mismatch between the I/O device and the UI, i.e., that a much better UI could be made given the possibilities of the input and output capabilities of the hardware.
I don't know whether the screen supports multi-touch (sensing multiple fingers at the same time), but, I didn't have time to ponder where in a Windows UI I might find something to test on.
Still, you can passably tap buttons, except even there, I tried to hit the close 'X' button at the top right corner of the screen, and, well, I couldn't. The bezel around the screen juts out at a 90 degree angle 1 or 2 millimeters beyond the last pixel, and it's a massive 1/2" or so high, so fingers can't go there. Back to the drawing board.
Still, HP makes some wonderful video ads.

F.I.B.

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:24:00 +0000

PolarisMotor in Italy has some very fun-looking vehicles.

Thanks to Q for the link.

Amazing Prosthetics

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:53:00 +0000

WIRED has an article (including a video) of a prosthetic arm designed by Dean Kamen. It looks like a very nice segue to the Segway.

Andromeda Strain?

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:52:00 +0000

Apparently, some bacteria of the Pseudomonas and Sphingomonas families like to eat plastic.

Al Mo GTS (Go to Sleep)

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:13:00 +0000

Toy-makers out there, here is what I would like: A soft animal toy remote controlled by a parent to give such useful messages as "It's time to close our eyes and go to sleep now. Please hold me tight!"
This would take advantage of children often paying more attention to others than to their parents. ;-)

Fun Image Processing with a Wii

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:19:00 +0000

Here is a TED Talk about some fun things you can do for a few dollars using a Wii remote control's infrared camera.

Fun Drawing Program

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:13:00 +0000

Doodle
Originally uploaded by Mannby

I looked for a drawing program that was simple to use, free, and covered the whole screen, for Anantika to use while visiting the office, and I found this gorgeous application for the Mac: ArtRage.

Google Conference on Scalability 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:48:00 +0000

The videos from the Google Scalability Conference are now available online.

Jeff's talk, above, had lots of interesting stats on Google's operations.

My My Frosty

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 07:00:00 +0000

$2.5K Car

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:08:00 +0000

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/10/1325207&from=rss

"After months of rumors and tantalizing leaks, Tata Motors has finally unveiled the Tata Nano, its already legendary $2,500 car that promises to change the face of not only the Indian car market, but the global auto industry. The tiny car is a four door, five seat hatch, powered by a 30 HP engine that gets 54 miles per gallon."

Gasoline from CO2

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:20:00 +0000

"Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico have found a way of using sunlight to recycle carbon dioxide and produce fuels like methanol or gasoline."

"He and Stechel said the technology could be 15 to 20 years from viability on an industrial scale.
The Sandia team originally developed the CR5 to generate hydrogen for use in fuel cells. If the device's rings are exposed to steam instead of carbon dioxide, they generate hydrogen. But the scientists switched to carbon monoxide, so the fuels they produce would be compatible with existing infrastructure."

Sounds very interesting. I assume the process for generating gasoline from carbon monoxide is well known. I would hate to see carbon monoxide floating around....

Color-blindness Simulation

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 18:52:00 +0000

Here is a site that lets you simulate viewing other sites as they would appear to color blind people of various types: http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

Thanks to Dan Fox for the link.

DIY Drones

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:58:00 +0000

I think my kids' children will be able to have dragons flying around in their bedroom, spraying cold fire on roaring hand-sized bears roaming the far corners of the shelves.

Or, maybe it will come sooner: http://diydrones.com/

CELLHUP

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:25:00 +0000

Have you ever made or received an unintentional/pocket call? Then this one's for you:

Cell phones should be made to understand a simple numerical sequence, e.g. *55*, that makes the receiving side hang up and make a special sound to alert the owner what happened.

So, if you receive a "pocket call" simply press *55*.

Chumby

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:20:00 +0000

A very interesting open hardware project.

New MP3 Compressor Claims 2X Smaller Files

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 19:18:00 +0000

http://www.wired.com/software/softwarereviews/news/2007/09/shrinkmytunes

Magic Image Resizing

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 17:59:00 +0000

This video demonstrates a wonderful image processing technique. I guess photos can definitely not be believed any more, even a live photo feed....

Thanks to Q for the link.

Broadband Upgrade

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:41:00 +0000

http://www.thelocal.se/7869/20070712/

Wikipedia Shrinking

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:35:00 +0000

A new text compression algorithm has been developed that is very close to the range of compression achievable by humans.

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/10/0055257&from=rss

Open Source Phone

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:13:00 +0000

http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/09/0049249&from=rss

T-Mobile Cell Phone to Support WiFi Calls

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:52:00 +0000

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/technology/circuits/05pogue.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=9b1df670af399cec&ex=1183780800&pagewanted=all

Google on Video Fingerprinting

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:50:00 +0000

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/state-of-our-video-id-tools.html

FlyGesture

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:42:00 +0000

Gus Mueller, a Seattle Mac star developer, has now made FlyGesture free:

http://www.gusmueller.com/blog/archives/2007/07/if_you_love_something_set_it_free.html

One Phone Number for Life

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:16:00 +0000

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/24/google-to-acquire-grand-central-for-50-million/

Their service is actually quite awesome. You get call screening (first time callers have to leave their name) and phone spam filtering, email and/or SMS notifications.

You can route groups of people to different numbers, and disable your home phone during the day.

The WebCall Button is also quite intriguing:

Autism Reversed?

noreply@blogger.com (Claes-Fredrik Mannby) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:14:00 +0000

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6245742.stm