CSL Blog

NewsMonster: cross-platform weblog manager with a brain.

NewsMonster is a news, weblog, and RSS aggregator that runs directly in your web browser. NewsMonster offers a superior web experience and outstanding integration with existing websites and weblogs that support RSS. Even sites that don’t support RSS can work with NewsMonster. That’s not all! NewsMonster incorporates an advanced reputation system to prevent spam and discover and inform you of important news.

Get all the latest news — as it arrives! Cache entire web sites in the background while you surf! Rate your favorite and least-favorite websites and share ratings with the online community – automatically!

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RSS Feed Reader / News Aggregators Directory :: hebig.org/blog

Nice up-to-date list of news agreegators by platform / OS.

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iChilli :: Home

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BlogPlanet: mobile photo blogging made easy!

With BlogPlanet, updating your blog while you’re on the go is as easy as writing an SMS. It runs on your mobile or Palm handheld and lets you write new blog entries, send them to your blog, edit them afterwards and delete them. On top of that, you can take pictures with the mobile’s built-in camera and include them in your posts.

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FreeGuide TV Guide

FreeGuide is a TV listings viewer that works offline. It downloads listings information from the Internet and stores it for later viewing. The viewer allows the user to view television listings and create customised TV guides by selecting programmes and by building up a favourites list.

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DeLi Linux

From the About section
DeLi Linux stands for “Desktop Light” Linux. It is a Linux Distribution for old computers, from 486 to Pentium MMX 166 or so. It’s focused on desktop usage. It includes email clients, graphical web browser, an office package with word processor and spreadsheet, and so on. A full install, including XFree and development tools, needs not more than 300 MB of harddisk space.

The trick is, that DeLi Linux uses only “lightweight” alternative software. If you are looking for the newest KDE, GNOME or Mozilla, DeLi Linux will not make you happy. The test computer is a 486 laptop with 16 MB RAM, and all apps which comes with DeLi Linux are running smoothly.

“Why the heck make a Linux for such old crap ?” you may ask. There are still many computers around with the configuration mentioned above, it would be a shame to waste them. Many people simply cannot buy a 2 Ghz machine for 1000 $ or more, but they can buy a Pentium I 133 for 50 $ from ebay. Many people are still happy with the computer they bought five years ago. Especially in the so-called third world, new hardware is not affordable. Well, there’s still Windows95 or Windows 3.1, which will run on these machines, too. But these versions are not supported by MS anymore, they are no longer in production, and finally, you will not get any software for this old Windows version.

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Silky – an easy to use graphical SILC client

Open source for LINUX platforms.

SILC is a protocol which provides secure conferencing services in the Internet over insecure channel. SILC is IRC like although internally they are very different. Biggest similarity between SILC and IRC is that they both provide conferencing services and that SILC has almost same commands as IRC. Other than that they are nothing alike

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Review: Docker Magnetic Wireless Headset (MobileBurn).

Interesting alternative (?) to Bluetooth headsets. Does require a dongle w/plug, but is apparently immune to wireless interference experienced in the Bluetooth realm (I haven’t verified this interference yet).

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VTL: Virtual Training in Laparoscopy, research being done at University of Texas at Arlington, UTSouthWestern (UTSW) Medical Center at Dallas.

A project I helped start at UTA when I was in the College of Engineering.

Utilizes the SENSABLE Phantom, a commercially-available haptic device. UT’s ARRI (Automation and Robotics Research Institute) constructed a frame into which two Phantoms are installed and to which laparoscopic surgical instruments are attached.

Research continues under the ausipces of Dr. Venkat Devarajan, a professor in UTA’s EE department.

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Everyday Devices That See, an exhibit and product demonstration of a “projection keyboard” from Canesta, Inc. at the Emerging Technologies” section of the SIGGRAPH 2003 conference.

From the web page at S2003:
Everyday Devices That See: Electronic-Perception Technology

Electronic perception technology is a new, low-cost, single-chip imaging technology that creates 3D images of its nearby surroundings in real time, enabling everyday devices to “see.” This project demonstrates the first application of this technology: a projection keyboard for mobile and wireless devices.

Innovation
Canesta, Inc. has developed and patented new, low-cost, semiconductor-based methods for forming electronic images of nearby objects in three dimensions. Unlike the sensors in digital still and video cameras that see the world as flat images, Canesta technology can additionally compute the distance from the sensor of every single pixel in the image, in real time.

What is remarkable about this breakthrough is that the technology can be implemented in a single, low-cost CMOS chip that, along with the appropriate proprietary Canesta software, can bring electronic-perception technology to a wide range of consumer and industrial products ranging from cell phones to PDAs, games, and industrial, medical, and security equipment.

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Logitech diNovo Media Desktop: Bluetooth keyboard/mouse/keypad

Bluetooth-based “desktop suite” from Logitech. Connects to laptopcs/desktops via a supplied bluetooth transmitter via USB.

Question (to be answered soon): can it be hosted by an iPAQ/PDA *without* the supplied Bluetooth transmitter? i.e., can the Bluetooth stack and hardware within the iPAQ drive this directly?

From Logitech’s page:
If you love design as much as performance, the diNovo Media Desktop was built for you. diNovo gives you advanced wireless freedom and a powerful way to orchestrate your PC’s digital media capabilities. Even more, it makes your PC a Bluetooth control center. And it possesses a look and feel that is pure artistry.

Let’s start with the keyboard. With clean lines and an ultra-flat design, the diNovo keyboard fits beautifully with contemporary PC systems and flat LCD monitors. You’ll enjoy the full-size typing layout, full travel keys, and array of extra buttons to simplify your work. Just plug it in and watch it completely transform your desktop.

You’ve never seen anything like the MediaPad, a Bluetooth remote commander for all your digital media. Use it to remotely view, select, and launch your favorite jukebox tunes, video clips, or digital photos. The MediaPad also displays email or instant message notifications, and it lets you monitor media selection playback status, even when you’re away from your desk. It’s a numeric keypad with a built-in smart calculator. And you can view time and date in the digital display.

Moving to the mouse, the diNovo Media Desktop includes Logitech’s most advanced performer: the rechargeable MX™900 Cordless Optical Mouse. Its award-winning MX Optical Engine is the last word in precision and accuracy.

To streamline your desktop, a single external device performs two critical functions: wireless hub for all your Bluetooth devices and fast power charger for the mouse. Communicate instantly using your Bluetooth headset, or easily exchange data between your PC and your Bluetooth PDA, cell phone, and printer. Thanks to the power of Bluetooth, you can do it all without wires. Learn more about all the things you can do with Bluetooth and Logitech.

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Smart Touch: A New Skin Layer to Touch the Non-Touchable, part of the Emerging Technologies exhibit at SIGGRAPH 2003

From the description at the EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES exhibit:
SmartTouch: A New Skin Layer to Touch the Non-Touchable

SmartTouch is a new haptic augmented-reality system based on electrical stimulation to convert sensed information into skin sensation. It is composed of a thin electro-tactile display and sensors mounted on the skin, so the wearer can not only make physical contact with objects, but also touch surface information of any modality.

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Planar Manipulation Display at SIGGRAPH 2003

Planar Manipulator Display

The Planar Manipulator Display is a novel input/output device that enables simultaneous planar movement and sensing of multiple physical objects. The underlying hypothesis is that interaction mediated by computer-controlled objects will improve understanding and collaboration in many types of simulations for which screen-based interaction is not optimal.

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Slashdot | Java Frameworks and Components: book review at SLASHDOT.

From the Overview:
This book is a superb exploration of the current state of the web application development framework market. Both commercial and open-source/free frameworks are examined in detail.

The book works through a logical progression, starting with a discussion of what a framework is (and, of course, what it isn’t) before moving on to an examination of the benefits that they bring to development efforts. The meat of the book is in the next couple of chapters where a framework (no pun intended) is explored to select and compare frameworks. A list of current frameworks is given, each being described, with strengths and weaknesses highlighted.

The trailing chapters cover aspects of development that are affected by the use of frameworks, including the obvious ones like IDE support and methodologies.

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Mondo Rescue: GPL’d LINUX backup utility.

Among other capabilities, MONDO can produce ISOs of a given system which allows full restoration via individual CDs. Interesting idea ….

From the ABOUT
Mondo is reliable. It backs up your GNU/Linux server or workstation to tape, CD-R, CD-RW, NFS or hard disk partition. In the event of catastrophic data loss, you will be able to restore all of your data [or as much as you want], from bare metal if necessary. Mondo is in use by Lockheed-Martin, Nortel Networks, Siemens, HP (US and France), IBM, NASA’s JPL, dozens of smaller companies, and tens of thousands of users.

Mondo is comprehensive. Mondo supports LVM, RAID, ext2, ext3, JFS, XFS, ReiserFS, VFAT, and can support additional filesystems easily: just e-mail the mailing list with your request. It supports adjustments in disk geometry, including migration from non-RAID to RAID. Mondo runs on all major Linux distributions and is getting better all the time. You may even use it to backup non-Linux partitions, such as NTFS.

Mondo is free! It has been published under the GPL (GNU Public License), partly to expose it to thousands of potential beta-testers but mostly as a contribution to the Linux community. I charge for 1-to-1 technical support to fund Mondo’s development.

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Pocket PC Flash – Home: Flash development resource for the Pocket PC platform.

VERY well-designed site addressing PocketPC FLASH 2004 applications.

From the “Development” section:
So you’re interested in developing Flash content for Pocket PCs but you don’t know where to get started, well you’ve come to the right place. What you’ll find here is a break down of the tools and resources you’ll need to get started, as well as links to where you can download these items.

Sometimes the best way to learn something is by example, and that’s what these tutorials will be. I’m creating these downloadable tutorials along with the source code and finished files so you can see and learn from beginning to end the process involved for creating Flash content for the Pocket PC Platform.

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Along with a friend & co-author, Elise Blount, I have been published an article on blogging in the November 2003 issue of Computer magazine.

Weblogs: simplifying web publishing

We have a blog associated with the article as well Blogs R Us

IEEE members, or those with University library access, can get digital (PDF format) version of the paper, and we (the authors) will be posting our original article on our blog (stay tuned for the URL).

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Here is my iPAQ-specific blog which features software, peripherals, and general ideas about handheld & wearable computers.

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Don Box’s Spoutlet: .NET Framework Community Website.

Very interesting blog on .NET framework(s).

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