Technically Speaking

I was just looking through my referrer logs, on SiteMeter, and I saw that someone found me by looking for “technically speaking”. Well I followed the link back to the Yahoo search page and found that I am #1 on that search. Curious, I thought, what number will I have on Google?

#1.

When I came up with the name, I was a bit concerned that I couldn’t get the URL to match. There are a lot of sites named “Technically Speaking”. I don’t know when this site took the leading spot in the search engines but I know that it wasn’t always #1. It feels good to be #1.

Okay, now on to bigger and better things.
Other Technically Speaking sites.

Technically Speaking
Technically Speaking
Technically Speaking
Technically Speaking ** Mental note — Keep an eye on this one. Another blog! Been around since 11/02
Technically Speaking I like this ones graphics!!!
Technically Speaking
Technically Speaking
Technically Speaking

Alien vs. Predator is the name of the next cool movie to be hitting the theatres. I just came across this and instantly knew that it is going to the top of my list of movies to see. Unfortunately, it is dated for release on August 6, 2004. Ten Months away. What will I do in the meantime? I will be on the watch for more news about this movie, so stay tuned.

First the untitled Batman/Superman film project, and now this?

Resident Evil director Paul Anderson has signed on to write and direct Alien vs. Predator, a 20th Century Fox flick based, like Evil, on a video game. Anderson is no stranger to the video-game-to-big-screen genre; he also helmed Mortal Kombat.

The plot of Alien vs. Predator
will follow a scientist on a far-away planet who hatches alien eggs in
order to create an environment that will allow predators to thrive.
Almost certainly, his plan will go horribly awry, and dozens of hapless
extras will become alien and predator food.

[via Movies.com]

The brief overview

Scientists try to lure Predators to Antarctica by using Alien eggs as bait. Predictably, plans go even further south than the icy continent. As the two species battle, humans find themselves caught in the middle and becoming casualties.

[via Movies.com]

You really must see this AVP (featurette)

The time is nearing in which we, humans, can sit back and let the machines do all the work. One area in which this topic can be taken advantage of is modeling.

Software cyberbabes, created by powerful computers, sophisticated modelling packages and active imaginations are getting extremely human-like.

Virtual cyberbabes are used in advertising campaigns, hit shoot-em-up games, and the pop industry, from Lara Croft to virtual pop idols, T-Babe and Diki or DK-96.

Some of the best 3D models around are currently on show at an exhibition which has just opened in London called Perfectly Real: Women in Bits and Bytes.

But they raise questions about what people might be able to do with the models if they get too realistic and we cannot tell the difference anymore.

Why would we want to use a machine generated model to display our consumer goods? There are a lot of reasons; the computer generated woman can work 24/7 in any weather, it can’t complain, the clothing will always fit perfectly, the right model spec are not an issue, they don’t require pay… Get the idea?
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Well!!!! I have something to think about. I rememeber when I first applied for one of these Adsense accounts. I was flat out denied. The reasoning was unclear. I didn’t really mind it until my brother showed me the amount of profit that could be generated from it.

Google wants me now. I’m considering. Why? you ask! This could pay for my blogging habit,…easily. I don’t need help for my blogging habit, but this validates that I’m not wasting my time with delusions of granduer. Here is the email I just received….

Congratulations!

As we grow, we are able to include a wider range of publishers and
content, so we’ve revisited your AdSense application. We’re happy to
inform you that your site, www.tonytalkstech.com, has been approved to
run in our AdSense program.

We have activated your account and hope that you are still interested
in being a part of AdSense. You are under no obligation to join at this
time, but, we encourage you to try out AdSense and discover its earning
potential and editorial value.

Shortly after its creation in 1998, the company began distributing a browser plug-in that millions of people use to automatically fill in Web forms and passwords. That business is supported through the sale of advertising, which is targeted to specific users by monitoring their behavior as they surf the Web.

Claria later spun off the ad business, called GAIN, so it could support other third-party plug-ins and build up the number of Web surfers in its ad network. As a result, it also created a large Internet advertising research and analysis unit.

“We feel that the Claria Corporation name will allow us to better communicate the expanding breadth of offerings that we provide to consumers and advertisers,” CEO and President Jeff McFadden said in a statement.

AS of now, it only looks like the name of the company has changed and not the game. Claria is working to disassociate itself from the term spyware but so far it is only by slight of hand and legal motions, changing the name of the company.

Claria is also fighting to disassociate itself from the term “spyware.” In recent weeks, it launched a legal offensive to divorce its name from the hated term, with some success. In response to a libel lawsuit, antispyware company PC Pitstop has settled with Gator and pulled Web pages critical of the company, its practices and its software.

Claria operates three units. GAIN Publishing includes the Gator software and provides support to other software companies such as video compression company DivXNetworks. GAIN Network is the division that delivers targeted pop-up advertisements to 38 million people who use GAIN Publishing software. Feedback Research provides online research and Web analytics based on data from its ad network.

Source: CNET News

Okay, bottom line…its different. Qualify it! It’s like this, if you are coming from the Outlook mindset, granted, that’s not the best mindset to be coming from, it will take a bit to get use to it.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Bloomba, but I think it needs some work. Bloomba is setup for their idea of email management. Their idea is very progressive. I will even say that it is better than the Outlook vision. Bloomba uses views, like a query against a folder for you to find sought after messages. Outlook uses a filing system, like emails are saved together in a folder, defined by you. Bloomba allows for the user to create, basically, queries on the received/sent emails. These queries are like the searches in Outlook. The difference is that Bloomba makes you feel that you should be thinking a different way, like how do I find my message that is from “Bob”, received “yesterday”, through “this” mailserver, containing these words. You could possibly do the same thing in Outlook but you don’t really have to. In Outlook, you would just goto “Bob’s” folder and look in there. If you use Outlook like how I use it, you have a folder for every important thing. In Bloomba, you would have a query. So, there is no need for folders. You can put all of your messages in one folder and just do queries against it.
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Here is a tool that can give you a little more control over XP. A lot of XP customizations is packed into this application. If I didn’t know any better I would call it the one stop solution to your XP needs.

XP Smoker is not just your ordinary tweaking application. It has all the options you could ever want for tweaking Windows XP and Internet Explorer. XP Smoker can help you control the smallest settings to more advanced features and if you can’t find it in XP Smoker then it must not be important. This application even gives you the recommended settings based on your system, in addition to giving you the option of restoring the changes back to default. XP Smoker will do the following things for your Windows XP driven system and more: •Reduce subsystem bottlenecks throughout your system •Decrease application and boot load times •Increase the stability of Windows XP •Increase web browsing anywhere from 10% to 100% faster •Push your 56K, DSL, Cable, Satellite, T1 connection to the max •Secure Internet Explorer features and the Control Panel applet •Delete IE Temporary Internet files, history, and index.dat files •Disable unnecessary services •Free unlimited tech support for life •Free major and minor upgrades for life

Source: TechDaily.ws

An unmanned probe found exposed gems scattered along the Martian terrain.

Large quantities of a green mineral gemstone have been found on Mars. Rocky outcrops of the mineral olivine were spotted by a space craft orbiting the planet.
On Earth, the mineral is known as peridot, an inexpensive gemstone used in jewellery.

Its presence gives clues to the ancient history of Mars, suggesting the planet has been cold and dry for billions of years.

The exposed mineral is weathered away in warm, wet conditions.

If it has been there for billions of years, as geological evidence suggests, then Mars must have been cold and dry for much of that time.

I surely hope that the probe landed on the Martian planet and found the gems, just think how big the gems would have to be for them to be detected from orbit.

Source: BBC News

One of the largest known solar flares erupted from the sun on Tuesday, heralding a storm of superheated gas that could hit Earth within a day.

The outburst was classified an X17.2 flare, the third largest on record, according to Paal Brekke, a project scientist with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a sun-watching satellite mission jointly run by NASA and the European Space Agency.

In comparison, two solar storms observed last week were between X1 and X5, Brekke said.

Solar flares are associated with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, eruptions from the sun that, if headed our way, can disrupt communications satellites and power grids.

Solar flares have been in the new lately and typically they are of much concern to us. In the past they have disrupted our electronics and have caused minor inconveniences. This doesn’t appear to be the case this time around. We seemed to learn how to build better electronics. At least that is what we believe after the last solar flare erupted. Yesterday’s flare, that is estimated to reach us today, is slightly different.

“The eruption was positioned perfectly. It’s headed straight for us like a freight train,” said John Kohl, a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics scientist, in a statement. “A major geomagnetic storm is bound to happen.”

Brekke is not so sure and awaits more data from SOHO and another deep space solar-watching satellite positioned between the sun and Earth.

“Until we know the orientation of the magnetic field in this cloud, we will not know how severe the geomagnetic storm will be.”

I can’t wait to see what will happen. In addition to the electronics disruption, we should see some pretty striking Northern and Southern Lights. The solar flare interacts with the earth’s magnetic field and displays auroras.

Source: CNN.com

A new venture called the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology (ISN) is working hard to make the futuristic battle suit. Some of the ideas they are pursuing are those that are only found comic books. Using Nanotechnology, they would like to mimic the strength of natures toughest substance into a man-made garb.

But first ISN researchers are testing the toughness of many natural materials - everything from antlers to armadillo shells to horse hoofs.

They even tried to get dinosaur plates from Norway - but couldn’t get export permits. And Bruet convinced a paleontologist in Paris to give him a prehistoric armored fish from Senegal. Bruet hand-carried it back to Boston for testing.

“We’re going to try to find nature’s toughest material,” says Frick, a material-science major.

And these researchers are not the only ones looking. When ISN is fully staffed, it will have some 35 faculty members; 80 graduate students; and specialists from Raytheon, the DuPont chemical company, two Boston hospitals, and others.

Together, they’re working on a range of projects. One would create “exo-muscles” embedded in the battle suit. These would give soldiers Spider-Man-like strength. But ISN Director Ned Thomas admits it’s probably years from reality.

The exo-muscle is an invention that will really make our soldiers a tough match. The exo-muscle would be able to increase a mans strength 20 fold, at least. One challenge that the ISN faces is how to make the exo-muscle work alongside of the user’s muscles. These projects are somewhat on the back burner. What’s in the forefront of their research is the ability to make everything a soldier carries waterproof. I guess you have to start with baby steps, heh? Perhaps the ISN can take a few lessons from the creator of the Mercury Battle Armor, displayed on this site’s default skin. A design similar in nature is sure to instill fear in those that stand against it.

Source: Christian Science Monitor

The shareholders of both companies, Palm and Handspring, approved the merger plans of the companies.

The agreement of both sets of stakeholders means the acquisition will now go ahead, having already been granted regulatory approval. Last week, Handspring settled two lawsuits that might have blocked the takeover.

And with the deal done, Palm OS development business PalmSource now becomes a truly independent entity, and the Palm Solutions Group rechristens itself PalmOne with the PLMO Nasdaq ticker symbol. PalmSource stock will be traded as PSRC.

I think that this is going to be a great business move. In my opinion, Handspring has been kicking ass on Palm in the innovation area and product pricing. With the to joining forces, they should be able to have the resources to step up the operation to nearly untouchable levels. Only the future can tell. Keep and eye on this one.

Source: The Register

This isn’t exactly metadata, but some interesting facts about data has come to my attention. I am one that believes that just about anything you need info on can be found on the web, if you search hard enough. The statistics I came across tends to back that theory.

On Monday, researchers at the University of California evaluated, and contributed to, the information glut with the release of their report “How Much Information? 2003,” which pegs the quantity of new information stored in 2002 at 5 exabytes, or 5 quintillion bytes.

That, said researchers at U.C. Berkeley’s School of Information Management and Systems, amounts to the print collections of the Library of Congress–500,000 times over.

According to the article, there was 18 exabytes of data transmitted in the year of 2002. Most of it being transmitted over telephone networks and the data in the form of voice and data. The majority of data stored in 2002 was stored by magnetic media, mainly computer hard disks.

Source: CNET News.com

Researchers have found one of the keys to our sleep cycle. The answer as to why the melatonin levels rise and fall when they do has eluded them for some time now. They believe that they have found the chemical that regulates the process.

Published yesterday in the online edition of Nature Structural Biology, the paper identified the switch that destroys the enzyme controlling melatonin production.

“We’ve filled an important gap in our understanding of why melatonin levels rise and fall,” said Hopkins pharmacologist Philip Cole, who led the study, along with Hopkins researcher Weiping Zheng.

In humans and most other animals, melatonin largely controls the sleep-wake cycle. At night, the chemical increases in key areas of the brain; in daylight, it decreases.

Cole and his colleagues studied an enzyme called arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase (AANAT), which plays a major role in turning serotonin into melatonin. When present, AANAT triggers melatonin production. In the presence of light, the body quickly destroys the enzyme, which ends melatonin production.

This information will one day benefit the millions of people that suffer from the following disorders/conditions; insomnia, narcolepsy and jet lag. The techniques used are also of great benefit for they may help in other areas of research.

The research could bear additional fruit because it was the first time that scientists have been able to create an enzyme that’s impervious to phosphorylation. “We’ve used an absolutely novel technology here,” Klein said.

Thousands of enzymes switch themselves on and off by adding or removing phosphate groups - some play key roles in diseases.

By using synthetic enzymes whose phosphates are permanently attached, scientists may be able to learn more about how these enzymes contribute to various ailments.

The new technique could be especially useful to cancer researchers, because they believe that many forms of cancer involve faulty phosphorylation - a process in which enzymes become stuck in the “on” mode.

Source: sunspot.net

Flash -

WASHINGTON — Japan has lost contact with the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-2 (Adeos-2), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced Oct. 25.

The Earth observing satellite, which was launched in December, failed to make a scheduled data transmission Oct. 25 and engineers subsequently discovered that the craft had turned off all of its observation equipment to minimize power use, JAXA reported. It was later discovered that the spacecraft’s solar panels were producing only 1 kilowatt of power, rather than the normal 6 kilowatts.

Within 90 minutes of the missed data transmission, JAXA lost all contact with Adeos-2. The agency has formed a team to investigate the matter but has yet to declare the satellite lost.

Japan lost its first Advanced Earth Observing Satellite in 1997 due to a solar panel failure.

Adeos-2 is designed to make observations of things such as sea surface temperature, snow and ice distribution, and vegetation patterns in order to help scientists better understand long-term global changes in the atmosphere, oceans and on land.

Source: Space.com

Lexar announced that they will be introducing a flash-based JumpDrive Music device in November. One of the greatest benefits of their product will be that there are no moving parts in it. I read earlier today on BlogCritics, bookofjoe has had problems with all 3 of his iPods. I posted earlier that I fancy having an iPod but after reading about the problems that bookofjoe is having, I’m not too sure. Granted, I don’t plan to be jogging with my iPod but if I were to set it down a little too hard or drop it, what then?

The players are moving into position…Dell Digital Jukebox is slated to be available today.

The Dell Digital Jukebox music player, or “Dell DJ,” and accompanying software will be available through Dell’s online music store starting Tuesday, according to the company. Dell says that the device, which comes with a capacity of either 15GB or 20GB, can play music continually for up to 16 hours.

The software, called “Dell Jukebox software powered by Musicmatch,” provides a graphical interface between a computer and the Dell DJ device, as well as access to Musicmatch Downloads, a service selling songs for 99 cents.

Dell’s 15GB MP3 player will sell for $249, while the 20GB version will sell for $329, according to the company.

This device by Dell also based on a disk drive and is therefore susceptible to damage through shock or impact. It will be nice to see a competitor for the iPod hit the scene but I think I will wait till a MP3 player on the level of an iPod comes, with no movable parts.

I would like to let the Dell Digital Jukebox a chance to be received and then I will mention how well it’s entrance was. Hopefully, someone will compare it to the iPod.

Source: ZDNet and CNet News

I am finishing up a long weekend. I took some time off to get a little rest and to spend some time with the family. I actually had a good relaxing weekend. Friday, I was able to spend some much needed quality time with my son. Saturday, I attended a black tie affaire at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Buckhead Atlanta. My salsa crew and I did a performance for the Latin American Association’s annual Gala. Yesterday and today were truly two days of rest. I spent the extra hour I had changing all of the clocks in the house. You don’t really realize how many clocks you have until you have to change the time on each and every one of them. Well, I’m back to work tomorrow, I’m sure they will be happy to see me in the office. I am in the middle of programming tax returns for roughly 100,000 investors. Big time project thrown right in my lap. It is one of those hero or oat situations. If you see an increase in my blogging after February then you know that I was designated “Goat”. I’m not expecting this though. Now, off to find some quality topics to write about. That’s if Gizmodo hasn’t beaten me to them already.

I’m getting hooked on sifting through my log files, usually I check through SiteMeter’s logs but I can only get the last hundred visitors at any given time and like today, I was away from my computer for several hours and about 200 visitors had come through. Most of that is funneled over by search engines and I do welcome the traffic but I would love to see more bloggers enjoy my site. My brother tells me to be careful of what I ask for, well, perhaps he is right, he usually is. Anyway, I just want to take this time to give thanks to some of the sites that send a good deal of traffic this way. Here you are listed in no particular order. Okay, I lied, they’re listed in the order of importance most hits.

• The Gagalac Style
  
• Electric Venom
  
• resurrectionsong
  
• Spacecraft
  
• Jay Solo’s Verbosity
  
• Move the Crowd
  
• blogoSFERICS
  
• The Sophorist
  
• Tiger: Raggin’ & Rantin’
  
• Altered Perceptions
  
• plasticbag.org | weblog
  
• Dizzy Girl
  
• mtpolitics.net
  
• i am always right
  
• When I paint my masterpiece
  
• One Fine Jay
  
• Mutated Monkeys
  
• Binary Bonsai
  
• Like Wow Dude!
  
• Bear Left On Unnamed Road
  
• Confessions of a G33k
  
• Dean’s World
  
• Trader Mike
  
• Dog Snot Diaries
  
• Velociworld
  
• Jivha - the Tongue
  
• The TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem
  
• James Seng’s blog
  
• Signal + Noise
  
• Red Wheelbarrow
  

Thanks to all of you and to the others that were on my list, I will single you all out at a later date.

I’ll tell ya, I was working my way around to a couple of juicy bits of news I found. My aggregator chimes in about a new post and I check it out. It’s Gizmodo, and they have just posted about the traffic signal changer I was just about to write about. Then I look at some more of their work and see that they also posted about memory glasses. Man, whoever is running things at Gizmodo must be cracking a serious whip. How is a small time blogger like me supposed to compete with such talent? I don’t know but I don’t give up so easily.

I’m taking a break for now, I need to whip together a new machine for a friend. See you in a few hours. Well, I have to do the dentist appointment, beer shopping, and of course, stop buy the computer store to see the latest gadgets. So I’ll see you later this evening.

To go along with the review of the AMD Athlon 64 3200+, I have found this article on Slashdot. MSI, ASUS, and Shuttle are featured in this article for they have the hottest motherboards for the new Athlon 64. As you can probably guess, I’m looking to build my next computer and I will be keeping you all informed of the component choices I make. Stay tuned!

Ilya Gavrichenkov of Xbit Laboratories got his hands on the Athlon 64 3200+ CPU and wrote a detailed review about it. I just want to point out some of the things that caught my attention and leave the rest for you to read. Ilya’s review goes on to talk about performance, overclockability and the Cool’n'Quiet technology. There are lots of CPU-Z screenshots and comparison charts with other CPUs. Ilya really likes to compare the Athlon 64 3200+ to the Athlon 64 FX. The review is a good read, so check it out.

First of all let me point out that Athlon 64 processor is exactly that particular 64bit processor for desktop systems, which AMD was going to introduce from the very beginning. Later on, when Intel announced faster Pentium 4 processors and provided them with a faster 800MHz bus and Hyper-Threading technology support, AMD had to quickly re-position a one-way Opteron processor for the desktop market having hidden it behind the Athlon 64 FX trade mark. However, the server origin of Athlon 64 FX will prevent this solution from spreading really widely and getting less expensive so far. So, it is exactly Athlon 64 that is intended to really promote the 64bit architecture into the market.

So far AMD has released only one processor model from the new Athlon 64 family with the 3200+ performance rating. This CPU works at the actual 2GHz frequency, which is 200MHz lower than Athlon 64 FX-51 supports. Later on AMD will also release a faster modification of its Athlon 64 CPU with 3400+ performance rating and 2.2GHz actual core clock frequency. However, this can hardly be expected to happen soon. Why so, you will understand later on.

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