Simon's shared items in Google Reader

[video] New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users' Ears

2010-05-17T22:00:00Z

The new feature reduces Google phone users' cell phone costs while providing them with unobtrusive, personalized ads delivered in a friendly whisper.

Google Chrome: faster than a flying potato

2010-05-05T21:36:00Z

Google's never been shy to make claims that Chrome is the fastest browser on the planet, but it's truly pulled out all the stops to drive that point home for its latest beta. Rather than rely on some simple benchmarks, Google decided to test Chome against some other things that are fast -- namely, a potato cannon, sound waves, and lightning. We won't spoil all the surprise for you, but you can rest assured that Chrome comes out looking pretty good, and that everything else gets a little messy. Head on past the break to check out the speed tests for yourself, as well as the requisite making-of video.

Continue reading Google Chrome: faster than a flying potato

Google Chrome: faster than a flying potato originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 May 2010 16:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Google Chrome Blog | Email this | Comments

Android ported to iPhone?

2010-04-22T03:14:00Z

If you're a diehard iPhone user waiting for a similarly-gorgeous Android phone before you jump ship, you could spend time pining for a new HTC or Dell. Then again, the Droid you've been looking for might be right under your nose. Intrepid Linux fan planetbeing claims to have ported a debug version of Android to the iPhone itself, drivers and all, and you'll find a thoroughly convincing demonstration of his bona fide dual-booting Apple device taking calls, playing music and even surfing the web after the break. While the iPhone isn't the speediest Google phone around, it's not all that sluggish, either, and with the iPhone's hardware buttons remapped to Android controls, planetbeing seems to get along just fine. Now, let's see him work on some pinch-to-zoom, eh? Video after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Android ported to iPhone?

Android ported to iPhone? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink QuickPwn | Linux on the iPhone | Email this | Comments

WTD 953

2010-04-20T07:00:01Z

The Only Four Chords Needed For Every Pop Song (VIDEO)

2010-04-19T18:18:47Z

Australian musical comedy act The Axis Of Awesome (great name, by the by) has brought this to our attention: the same four chords in the same progression has been used for pretty much every pop song ever. Two congratulations are in order here. One for Axis of Awesome for this great live medley. And the other, to pop music who's duped us for years. Very impressive. But mark our words pop music: this ends now. (via The Daily What)

WATCH:

Embedded Video Player

2010-04-19T14:06:26Z

Shared by Simon
just glanced into it... classic!

Classic Keynote: Douglas Adams, author of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, gave this prescient and humorous keynote at the Embedded Systems Conference in 2001. Here it is in its entirety. Please forgive the video quality.

Urban Tag Game

2010-04-19T12:26:09Z

I favorited a YouTube video: Hu hu hu huu, let's play

Darth Vaders Voice Before Voice Over

2010-04-13T14:45:54Z

I favorited a YouTube video: The original track of Darth Vader's voice as performed by the man who acted him, David Prowse. Imagine what a different movie Star Wars would have been if they had left it like this. From the Documentary "Empire OF Dreams"

Apple A4 Teardown - iFixit

2010-04-09T12:17:38Z

Shared by Simon
ipad teardown, with cross-cut of the stacked a4 package

Deconstructing processors like the A4 usually happens behind the closed doors of only a handful of companies. These global reverse engineering firms are the investigative arm of the electronics marketplace, gumshoes who do research for people who need to find out who is making what circuitry, as well as what manufacturing process they're using to do it. They're the ones who delve deep into processors, audio controllers, and every other part you'd find inside a cell phone or iPad, figuring out layer by layer the exact composition of each package. We partnered with the best company in the semiconductor reverse engineering trade, Chipworks, to bring you a closer look at how semiconductor teardowns are conducted, as well as a peek inside the iPad's chips. The engineers at Chipworks are a wonderful bunch of people who are just as interested in today's electronics as we are. Their analysis of the iPad's packages will give you a better understanding of how the new tablet really works—on an almost molecular level.

Official Google Reader Blog: Google Reader gives back

2010-04-06T11:25:31Z

Shared by Simon
:-D

via img140.imageshack.us

2010-03-30T02:40:08Z

via img140.imageshack.us

The Psychology of Program Committees

2010-03-30T13:14:00Z

One thing that I frequently tell my grad students is that your chances of getting a paper accepted to a conference depend as much on who the reviewers are, and what kind of mood they are in, than the content of the paper itself. OK, leaving aside those obviously brilliant papers that my group is known to churn out, the paper content does matter -- but on most program committees there is a large pile of "pretty good" papers that all have a roughly equal chance of getting accepted. In these cases it often comes down to the collective mindset of the reviewers during the PC meeting.

There are many subtle psychological effects that influence the disposition towards a given paper. The first has to do with the timing of the paper discussion. At the beginning of a PC meeting, everyone is amped up on caffeine and uncalibrated with the respect to the overall quality of the papers being discussed. Your chances of getting a paper accepted when it is discussed early on in the meeting can vary widely. Most PC meetings discuss the top-ranked papers first, but after a string of (say) five or so papers accepted, people start thinking that it's time to reject a paper, so the sixth paper tends to be a scapegoat to release the pressure and make everyone feel better that the conference is still "selective." Fortunately, most PC chairs recognize this effect and switch gears to discussing some of the lower-ranked papers next, so the committee sees both ends of the spectrum. I've been in PC meetings where the top ranked paper with four strong accepts and a weak accept is tabled for further discussion, just because the committee is thirsty for blood.

Late in the afternoon, everyone is exhausted, cranky, and the power structure of the PC meeting has started to play itself out -- who's willing to throw themselves on the tracks to accept or reject a paper; who's willing to defer to more senior members of the committee; etc. Here we start to see some interesting personality traits emerge that can save or sink a paper:

"I didn't read this paper, but I know the work." This drives me nuts -- someone who was not even a reviewer casting doubt on (or supporting) the paper being discussed because they know the people involved or had some discussion with them at a conference a few months ago. This should be flatly disallowed by the program chairs, but I've seen it happen. A variant on this is...

"I didn't read this paper, but I saw their original failed submission last year." Again, this should be disallowed by PC chairs -- whether a paper was any good last year should have no bearing on the discussion of the present submission.

"I'm not an expert in this area, but I don't think there's anything novel here." Too many times a reviewer who is simply not qualified to review a paper is unwilling to defer to more expert members of the committee. Someone who doesn't know the related work that well might infuse the discussion with a vague sense of unease that taints the rest of the reviewers and makes it harder for someone to champion the paper for acceptance.

"I know way too much about this area and they should have used a value of 1.3 instead of 1.4 for the alpha parameter on page 7." Often, when a paper is too close to a reviewer's area, they tend to nickle-and-dime the paper for small problems that chip away at its credibility. Sometimes this is a poorly disguised attempt at tamping down the competition. These kinds of reviewers often miss the forest for the trees, where a paper has some good ideas but needs some rough edges sanded off, as all papers do.

"I'm a new faculty member and want to prove how smart I am by rejecting most of the papers in my pile." When you are new to program committees there is a real temptation to exercise your new power by rejecting papers left and right, which clearly establishes your intellectual dominance over the poor authors who are at your mercy. Most new faculty fall into this trap, and I've certainly been in this situation before.

"I'm a senior, well-respected faculty member and like to compare all of the papers in my pile to things published in the 1960s." The "there's nothing new here" argument sometimes comes up when you have a senior, somewhat jaded PC member who thinks that all of the good ideas were published back in the good old days when men were men and the women programmed in octal. It's inevitable that good ideas will come up time and time again, and I actually think there is value in reevaluating previously-published ideas in the context of new technology capabilities and application demands. Perspective is a great thing but sometimes you can have too much perspective.

The final point is that it is easy to argue to reject a paper; much harder to argue to accept a paper over other reviewers' objections. If a reviewer is not really sure about the novelty or importance of a paper's contributions, they often defer to the most negative reviewer, since nobody likes looking like an idiot in a PC meeting. Standing up and championing a paper takes a lot of guts, and by doing so you are taking responsibility for any faults in the paper that might arise later (if it turns out, say, that the exact same idea was published before, or there is a flaw in the experimental design). I think it's important that every member of a program committee commit themselves to championing one or two papers during the meeting, even if they aren't so sure about them -- otherwise the process can get to be too negative. One way to view your role as a PC member is to identify that beautiful piece of work that would otherwise have been overlooked due to superficial problems that turn off the reviewers.

So, next time you get a paper rejected, just remember that it's probably because the reviewers were in a bad mood because they hadn't served the afternoon coffee yet.

Homebrew Turing Machine

2010-03-27T06:16:56Z

Mike Davey, a maker from Wisconsin, built a classic Turing Machine with a 1000 foot instruction tape that holds up to 10k. Though Turing's machine was just a thought experiment, the paper in which it is described has enough detail to create it in real life. The machining is absolutely lovely, and when it's in motion, it's a thing of beauty.

A Turing Machine (Mike Davey)

DIY Turing Machine (IEEE Spectrum))

(Thanks, Erico!)

Previously:

HTC Tattoo für 179€ – Android Smartphone (WLAN, GPS, HSPA)

2010-03-22T10:45:35Z

Shared by Simon
Getting rid of my clumsy G1...

Das HTC Tattoo ist eines der günstigsten Android Smartphones. Zum Angebotspreis vom Power-Seller price-guard ist es aktuell sogar günstiger als das Samsung i7500.

HTC Tattoo für 179€ inkl. VSK (nächter Preis: 219€) – Android, Touchscreen, WLAN, HSPA, GPS

Es gibt ein Vodafone Software-Branding, aber das Handy kann selbstverständlich mit jeder SIM-Karte genutzt werden. Der Preisersparnis von 40€ erscheint sehr groß, allerdings liegt die Vermutung nahe, dass es sich um einen “Price-Drop” handelt.

Das HTC Tattoo selber verfügt über einen 2,8″ großen resistive Touchscreen und basiert auf Android 1.6 (wobei das Update auf 2.1 bald verfügbar sein soll – als eines der wenigen Budget Android-Smartphones). Eine Besonderheit ist sicherlich auch, dass man das silberne Design komplett customizen kann.

In den Testberichten gibt es eine Durchschnittsnote von 2,1 und bei den Kunden gibt es 4 Amazon Sterne. Besonders interessant ist hierbei der sehr ausführliche deutsche Testbericht von Dirk. Aber auch bei Cnet, Tarifagenten und Trusted Reviews gibt es noch recht interessante Testberichte.

Das kleine, etwas dicklich wirkende HTC Tattoo kann vor allem durch die sehr gute Ausstattung und Android OS überzeugen. Natürlich kann 528MHz Prozessor von der Geschwindigkeit nicht mit aktuellen Snapdragon Geräten mithalten, aber dafür kostet es auch deutlich weniger als die Hälfte. Das Tattoo schwächelt aber etwas durch den recht kleinen Touchscreen, der auch nur auf Druck (resistiv) reagiert und eine recht geringe Auflösung hat. Dadurch können auch nicht alle Apps aus dem Android Store genutzt werden, da diese teilweise eine höhere Auflösung voraussetzen. Die Kamera ist nutzbar, aber sicherlich nicht gut und die Akkulaufzeit liegt im Mittelmaß (1-2 Tage).

Alles in allem kann das Gerät meiner Meinung nach aber trotzdem überzeugen.

Video:

Teil 2 (Bedienung) / Teil 3 (Internet) / Teil 4 (Kamera) / Teil 5 (Musikplayer)

Technische Daten (Herstellerhomepage):

Barren – GPRS/EDGE/HSDPA/HSUPA – WAP/MMS – GPS – OS: Android – Quadband – Farbdisplay (262.144 Farben, 320×240 Pixel, 2.8″, Touchscreen) – Vibracall – polyphone Klingeltöne – UKW-Radio, Video-/Mp3-Player – Digitalkamera (3.2MP) – Bluetooth 2.0 – USB 2.0 – WLAN (802.11b/g) – 256MB Speicher – micro-SD Slot – Standbyzeit: ~520h/340h (UMTS/GSM) – Gesprächszeit: ~5.7h/6.5h (UMTS/GSM) – Größe: 106×55.2×14mm – Gewicht: 113g – SAR-Wert: 1.25W/kg

TWAN project official website

2010-03-16T13:51:11Z

Shared by Simon
Time-lapse movie of night sky exposing geo-stationary sattelites.

Wir haben es ja schon immer geahnt:

2010-03-03T09:45:35Z

Quelle: Bundestagsradar bei Spiegel online.

Why you've never really heard the "Moonlight" Sonata. - By Jan Swafford - Slate Magazine

2010-03-03T10:05:50Z

Shared by Simon
If you like classical music, this is great article on the disruptiveness of the sound of modern pianos (with sound examples).

When composers wrote for these instruments they sometimes loved them and sometimes chafed at their limitations, but in any case they wrote for those sounds, that touch, those bells and whistles. From old instruments, performers on modern pianos can get important insights into the sound image that Mozart, Schubert, et al., were aiming for.

How To: Escape From Google's Clutches, Once and For All - How to leave google - Gizmodo

2010-02-26T10:04:17Z

Shared by Simon
good to know there are ways out of the google-empire ;-)

So you're fed up with Google, and you've got a litany of reasons. You don't even have to explain—I'm just here to help you crawl out from under the shadow of the big G, step by step.

Linksammlung

2010-02-24T16:28:28Z

Shared by Simon
This is only a pseudo-self-referencing post, as it actually comes from my old blog (please don't go there).

Die Perlen des Internets, auf die ich stoße kann man jetzt auch abonnieren: http://feeds.feedburner.com/simonslinks Zum lesen empfehle ich den Google Reader. Damit bleibt der Status der gelesenen Artikel über alle Rechner schön synchron....

Sweet Home 3D Models Your Home, Rearranges Your Furniture Without Breaking a Sweat [Downloads]

2010-02-18T19:00:00Z

Windows/Mac/Linux: Next time you get the urge to rearrange your furniture, don't strain your back randomly shoving your sofa around the room. Download Sweet Home 3D and do the heavy lifting on your computer screen before moving a stick of furniture.

This slick free interior design app recreates the dimensions of a room, and displays the furniture you add in 3D. Drag and drop tables, chairs, and plants around the room until you find an arrangement you like. Drop in windows, doors, and even change the color of the walls to replicate your room as closely as possible.

If you happen to have a blueprint available of the room you're redecorating, Sweet Home 3D will accept an import of the file in BMP, JPEG, GIF or PNG formats. Sorting through the furniture is easy—it's arranged in a tree view, just select the room you're decorating and drag what you like onto the 2D room grid. The app displays a 3D representation in real-time in a pane directly underneath. Check out an overhead view, or walk through the room as a virtual visitor for another perspective.

If you want to try out Sweet Home 3D before you download, there's an online version you can try out for free. Register to save any plans you create, or play with the app without signing up. Check out the video below to see Sweet Home 3D in action.

Sweet Home 3D [via Download Squad]