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Dr. Robert Kohout, an expert in artificial intelligence, is developing a program called “PAL” for DARPA’s Information Processing Techniques Office.

The PAL project has five main goals:

1. Enable machines to learn and improve their basic functionality through the accumulation of experience (and not through being explicitly programmed).
2. Can represent purpose/goals, system structure, and behavior, in order to allow a computational system to reflect on its own capabilities and performance.
3. Allow the software to be instructed and guided using natural human-oriented communications (e.g., natural language, pictures, gestures).
4. Have the ability of the software to use visual and auditory sensors to understand the user’s situation (who is in the meeting, who is speaking, etc).
5. Are integrated and result in fully functioning systems.

DARPA building learning computer

Tags: computers, science by kamakaze
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Google announced that the long rumored Chrome OS will be coming out later this year, with a version specifically for netbooks out next year .

At first glance, people are thinking yay! We’ll be able to get a netbook that boots up in a second or two, needs even less power consumption (much longer battery life) and doesn’t need much, if any, hard drive space (OS on PROM, persistent storage on flash chips). At first glance, I thought about that too, but then I realized something - PC vendors make money on the crapware they install on brand new PC’s. With a browser based OS, there isnt (shouldn’t) be any real local applications running, save the OS (browser).

This led me to a very scary place. Do you remember the AOL disks? Do you remember installing it up to get online and getting the AOL home page? Do you remember the big buttons and the cheery “Welcome!” followed by the iconic “You’ve got mail!“? Those are very powerful words.

In any case, my mind flashed to this place, but it wasn’t the 90’s, it was the 10’s. How would vendors monopolize when using a browser OS? A built-in unchangeable portal. Yes, portal. That old buzzword might be making a comeback. Popups and advertisements and, perhaps even a nice little greeting.

There’s more, though. Want to try a different OS? Good luck. What could you find to fit in the small footprint that such an OS would have, much less realizing there is no space for a hard drive, and the gig or two (at most) FLASH space really wouldn’t be enough to do anything serious.

I dunno. Even as an alternative to existing netbook OS’s, it seems overkill. Perhaps they’ll be looking more at the ktichen appliance market for something like this. I can’t see it making it in the consumer market, no matter how cheap the computers could be made and sold, and even with built-in 3g (4g?) connections. It would proabably be tied to AT&T for some unearthly reason.

That’s for another blog, though.

Tags: computers by kamakaze
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I switched over to gmail exclusively about 3 weeks ago. I installed the offline gmail tool and got it checking all my (important) accounts (about 4 of them). I setup alternative e-mail address to send email as, and setup multiple inboxes to sort mail. I setup filters to apply labels, star, and archive as needed.

I had problem connecting one day, and was pleased I could at least access the e-mail I had downloaded.

So far, it has been quite a struggle for me to change. The concept of labels over folders baffles me for some reason, and I end up making a ton of labels at first then start slowing narrowing it down to what i need. I can see the benefit of the labels over folders, but i still like to know that I can click on a folder because I moved it there. Not having to remember where an e-mail could be stuffed, and just do a quick little search for the label takes a bit of getting used to.

I’m getting into the groove of things, and have been using it everyday for several business accounts. I think the experiment is a success and I will continue to use it.

for my next project - i’m going to be setting up a home media pc with either an old pc or laptop, or my old xbox. I’m hoping to provide more media content to my xbox 360.

Would be interesting for my xbox to be slave to the xbox 360.

Tags: computers, projects by kamakaze
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This is a great list of tools for web developers. I was just talking about the font finder the other day.

Tags: computers by kamakaze
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This site is pretty nice when you’re needing to learn or get ideas for UI.

From their site :

UI Pattern Factory is a mix of user interface design pattern library and UI gallery. It is a place to find user interface best practices, get design inspiration, and share design solutions with others. Our patterns are always fresh with tons of examples, and you can easily add more using Flickr.

Tags: computers by kamakaze
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Last night I got the stuff to get my xbox hooked up to the internet as an early birthday / father’s day gift (as well as a super cool nifty laptop bag and lap desk) and, after I download the updates, installed the netflix app. I then proceeded to start watching movies in my queue. Very cool and works great. I wish it would show all the streamable movies in my queue, or, better yet, browse the entire library, but still, it worked very well and I am excited to have that feature. I’m going to be working on a media storage pc connecting to it to stream our music and other media. I am very excited about this new ability. Oh ya, and now we can buy games through it too.

One of the items I ran across was the Natal video. I loaded it up to show Taryn this interface and discovered that it was not the hyped unrealistic looking commercials i’ve seen everywhere , but the actual E3 on-stage demo of the product. It works. It seems to work very well. I can now see it augmenting their existing controllers in a way that would help immerse the gamer and offer more control of the character.

I can’t find a video of the actual E3 demo. If I can I’ll post it up here.

I was wondering why sony, during their motion sensitive controller demonstration, kept mentioning that they needed a controller because it didn’t feel right without it. Now we know. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s tech could work with the existing controller or really any shape or style of controller. That would be something, I’d think, because sony is right that some things just don’t feel right without a button.

Tags: computers, gadgets, games, personal by kamakaze
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The NEC CRV43 curved display includes the following features:

• Seamless curved screen, which eliminates bezel and screen gap issues for increased productivity and decreased frustration (according to Center for Human-Computer Interaction - Shupp et al, presented at Graphics Interface 2006)
• 2880 x 900 double WXGA native resolution
• 200 cd/m² brightness
• 0.02ms Rapid Response
• 10,000:1 contrast ratio
• Wide color gamut with 100% coverage of sRGB and 99.3% coverage of Adobe RGB
• Single link DVI-D and HDMI 1.3 input connectors
• USB 2.0 connectivity for easy use of peripherals
• Front panel controls
• On Screen Display (OSD®) and software-based GUI, which enables advanced display control options

The NEC CRV43 curved display is backed by a 3-year parts and labor warranty including the backlight and will be available for July 2009 shipment with estimated street price of $7,999.

I Want!!!!

story here wtih a couple more pics and more info.

Tags: computers, gadgets by kamakaze
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Method 2: Move Your Mouse Pointer
If you move your mouse pointer continuously while the data is being returned to Microsoft Excel, the query may not fail. Do not stop moving the mouse until all the data has been returned to Microsoft Excel.

This is a priceless article including this final solution :

Method 3: Paste the Data in the Worksheet

Here is the article, and discovered thanks to Geek Hero Comic

Tags: computers, humor by kamakaze
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Haven’t done this in a while, and I’m interested to keep track to see how things change over time. These are the programs I start up when my computer boots and/or applications or websites I go to to do my daily work.

• Desktop Widgets
  • Notepad
  • twitter
  • weather
  • google calendar
• Chrome
  • iGoogle
    • google reader
    • gmail
    • betwittered
    • google docs
    • calendar
    • tasks
    • notebook
  • Hulu
  • Pandora
  • Digg
  • reddit
  • meebo
• FireFox
  • Firebug
  • Stumble
  • Testing layout and sites that don’t work right in chrome
• IE
  • CPSOS
• Meebo Notifier
• GoToMeeting
• DropBox
• F-Secure AV
• Thunderbird - maybe moving everything over to gmail..thinking about it
• MS Web Developer
• Remote Terminal Client
• PuTTY

That is what it currently takes for me to get work done.

Tags: computers by kamakaze
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So I’ve been a staunch fan of Firefox for a while now, and have had it as my main browser. Recently, however, the blasted thing keeps shutting down on me in igoogle. iGoogle is one of the first things I load up and, with the help of a few desktop widgets, keeps me in touch with a lot of information I need or want.

So, I’ve started using Chrom. IE8 was another choice, and it is a LOT better than 7 or even that horror 6 (upgrade, people!!! it’s free!!!). Chrome does what I need it to do.

I just wish it had a feature for my gmarks, firebug, and stumble. Those are the reasons I keep Firefox around as a regularly used browser.

Tags: computers by kamakaze
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