Brent: Ideas Forwarded

What a Nexus One would look like if Apple had its way

Brent — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:14:00 -0800

lol

Google, HTC Respond to Apple Lawsuit

Brent — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 03:01:00 -0800

RIM woos consumers with new WebKit browser for BlackBerry

Brent — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:56:00 -0800

I heard about this before. Really looking forward to it. A good choice in my opinion.

Biggest mobile operators join forces on app store project

Brent — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:55:00 -0800

An article that finally mentions JIL! Who would of thought that would happen.

Samsung Unveils Wave, First Bada Handset

Brent — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:54:00 -0800

Direct3D State Tracker Will Not Be Open-Source

Brent — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:46:00 -0800

AMD Reveals Fusion CPU+GPU

Brent — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:30:00 -0800

DirectX 10/11 Coming Atop Gallium3D

Brent — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:46:00 -0800

APOD: The Einstein Cross Gravitational Lens

Brent — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:53:00 -0800

oooooh. ahhhhh.

Freedom Test

Brent — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:48:00 -0800

Fuck, Not is the fucking shit that becomes the essence of shit where shit is metaphorically speaking, poo. uselessness is amusing.

...

Intelligent anarchy! Realism? Bah! Objective Empiricism! Fallibilism. Yay for balanced logistics and moral compassion! Universal complexity is daunting! Embrace the observable chaos! Whimsical ideas of perfection? Bah! Eternal skeptical expansion of the mind! None of this means anything! Unless it means something! Its all a cat in the box...

CopperLicht - fast WebGL JavaScript 3D Engine

Brent — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:43:00 -0800

Bah, now I wish I stayed using the Daily Development version of Chromium. Have not been able to check it out but looks pretty freaking interesting.

Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology

Brent — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:02:00 -0800

Freaking awesome TED talk. Very cool.

Rails 3 Beta: Chugging Along!

Brent — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:43:00 -0800

I may still be in the totality of rails a newb but some of the merb/rails merger and changes has me looking forward to getting into Rails3 (aka Merb2). :D

MSI ready to launch iPad alternative

Brent — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:12:00 -0800

Cool post and demo of it in full story.

Old Stems Cells Young Again - Via Vampirism

Brent — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:10:00 -0800

Interesting...

New Touchscreen Technology Like Writing On Paper

Brent — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 01:07:00 -0800

GNOME-Vlc brings GTK interface, Simplicity to VLC

Brent — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:59:00 -0800

Woot, a Gnome GTK interface for VLC. Kind of something I always dreamed of... Mind you Totem Player can handle its own but lacks some small things VLC provides. Though VLC is hard on the eyes and some other small blemishes put pwns nonetheless. Here is the Launchpad source link. Hit the Full Story for the original article (OMGUbuntu). Looking forward to future updates!

Best XKCD yet

Brent — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:01:00 -0800

Chrome 4.0 Brings Extensions, Bookmark Sync

Brent — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 03:54:00 -0800

ATI R600/R700 Gallium3D Winsys Published

Brent — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:56:00 -0800

Open-Source JavaScript Flash Player (HTML5/SVG)

Brent — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:03:00 -0800

Flash on the iphone. snap!

Obama DOJ Sides With RIAA Again In Tenenbaum

Brent — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:59:00 -0800

Sound Generator Lethal From 10 Meters

Brent — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:59:00 -0800

Scientists To Breed the Auroch From Extinction

Brent — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:58:00 -0800

Nautilus Just Got Gorgeous

Brent — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:17:00 -0800

The Nautilus file-manager included in Ubuntu is... well.. crowded. We already saw some changes developers are taking to tame to the vast areas of wasted space and useless buttons in our over-view of Ubuntu Lucid Alpha 2 and prior to that we drooled over a 'Simplified Nautilus' - which is sadly no longer updated.

...

Sweet! I definitely am a fan of it. Installed, bitch.

German government warns against using MS Explorer

Brent — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:53:00 -0800

The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems. Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers' increased security setting would prevent any serious risk. However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe. Thomas Baumgaertner, a spokesman for Microsoft in Germany, said that while they were aware of the warning, they did not agree with it, saying that the attacks on Google were by "highly motivated people with a very specific agenda".

LG Announces 19 inch, Flexible Digital-Ink Display

Brent — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:02:00 -0800

Technology comes to the aid of Haiti

Brent — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:51:00 -0800

Online maps, mobile phone donations, wikis and a slew of websites are being deployed as telecoms firms, technology giants and startups set aside their rivalries and put the latest tools to work to help earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Jim Al-Khalili: Islam's House of Wisdom will rise again

Brent — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:51:00 -0800

Interesting read.

Network flaw causes scary Web error

Brent — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:45:00 -0800

Stephen Simburg, 25, who works in marketing, was home for Thanksgiving in Vancouver, Wash., when he logged onto Facebook from his cell phone. He didn't recognize the people who had written him messages. "I thought I had gotten really popular all of a sudden, or something was wrong," he said. Then he saw the picture of the account owner: A young woman. He got her e-mail address from the site, logged off and wrote the woman a message. He asked whether he had met her at some point and she had borrowed his phone to check her Facebook account. "No," she wrote back, "but I was just telling my family that I ended up in your profile!"

...

LOL

Debunking Gnome 3 myths

Brent — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:27:00 -0800

Good post outlining some cool new things being introduced in Gnome 3.0, the primary desktop for Ubuntu.

Quantum computers do chemistry

Brent — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:25:00 -0800

A team of quantum physicists has taken the first steps towards using a quantum computer to predict how a chemical reaction will take place. Even the most powerful classical computers struggle when trying to calculate how molecules will interact in a chemical reaction. That's partly because the complexity of such systems doubles with the addition of every atom, as each atom is entangled with all the others. Such escalating complexity is far easier for a quantum computer to deal with, because quantum computers exhibit similar properties: adding just one extra quantum bit or "qubit" doubles computational power. "There is a natural match between quantum computers and modelling chemistry," says Andrew White at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. In 2005 Alán Aspuru-Guzik at Harvard University and his team proposed an algorithm to carry out quantum chemistry calculations on a quantum computer. Now White, Aspuru-Guzik and colleagues have implemented the algorithm on state-of-the-art two-qubit photonic quantum computing hardware. Repeated calculation Their "iterative phase estimation algorithm" is a variation on existing quantum algorithms such as Shor's algorithm, which has been successfully used to crack encryption schemes. It is run several times in succession, with the output from each run forming the input to the next. "You send two things into the algorithm: a single control qubit and a register of qubits pre-encoded with some digital information related to the chemical system you're looking at," says White. "The control qubit entangles all the qubits in the register so that the output value – a 0 or 1 – gives you information about the energy of the chemical system." Each further run through the algorithm adds an extra digit. The data passes through the algorithm 20 times to give a very precise energy value. "It's like going to the 20th decimal place," White says. Errors in the system can mean that occasionally a 0 will be confused with a 1, so to check the result the 20-step process is repeated 30 times. Astounding accuracy The team used this process to calculate the energy of a hydrogen molecule as a function of its distance from adjacent molecules. The results were astounding, says White. The energy levels they computed agreed so precisely with model predictions – to within 6 parts in a million – that when White first saw the results he thought he was looking at theoretical calculations. "They just looked so good." Though cryptography is often cited as the most likely first application for quantum computing, chemistry looks to be more promising area in the short term, Aspuru-Guzik says. A system with 128 qubits "would be able to outperform classical computers" as a tool for chemistry, he says. Cryptography quantum algorithms would require many thousands of qubits to be as useful, says White. "The model of hydrogen we used was a simple first-year undergraduate quantum model, where almost all the complexity has been removed," White says. "But it turns out we can do more complicated models in principle. It just comes down to using a system with many more qubits."

I Have No Talent

Brent — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:44:00 -0800

John Nunemaker had an interesting (well to me anyway) post titled "I Have No Talent", over at RailsTips. Hit the post link for the article.

Turning wood into bones

Brent — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:03:00 -0800

A novel - and natural - way of creating new bones for humans could be just a few years away. Scientists in Italy have developed a way of turning rattan wood into bone that is almost identical to the human tissue. At the Istec laboratory of bioceramics in Faenza near Bologna, a herd of sheep have already been implanted with the bones.

Preview of WebKit's WebGL / Canvas 3D

Brent — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:40:00 -0800

Snap, a good post on WebGL examples in Webkit! I do believe that Internet Explorer can do 3D renderings with DirectX. I believe that is also what the guys over at WillPwn4Food are utilizing. Regardless check em out!

Why you should use OpenGL and not DirectX

Brent — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:36:00 -0800

Often, when we meet other game developers and say that we use OpenGL for our game Overgrowth, we're met with stares of disbelief -- why would anyone use OpenGL? DirectX is the future. When we tell graphics card representatives that we use OpenGL, the temperature of the room drops by ten degrees. This baffles us. It's common geek wisdom that standards-based websites, for instance, trounce Silverlight, Flash, or ActiveX. Cross-platform development is laudable and smart. No self-respecting geek enjoys dealing with closed-standard Word documents or Exchange servers. What kind of bizarro world is this where engineers are not only going crazy over Microsoft's latest proprietary API, but actively denouncing its open-standard competitor?

...

Enjoyed this read. Not because I hate Microsoft (or for another am using them as a specific focal point for it). In general, my issues come from the observable immoral actions that this capitalistic economy seems to validate and the cut throat tactics that ensue. Better off? Or just another wrapped version of primitive nature with a bow on top. I digress. My Idealism burns in balance to my pragmatic ascriptions. Capitalism is a course bet met with compassion and discipline in this world of desperation. For now it works. A better way is always approachable. But what do i know? Ill stick to some coding for now.

Palm, WebOS and a million dollar app incentive

Brent — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:06:00 -0800

Palm opened up its webOS developer program to the public this week in a bid to close the gap with the number of iPhone and Android apps. Palm will also open up its application distribution channel to developers and Web sites, giving them access to detailed information about applications and statistics, such as the number of downloads. This will allow them to build their own application directories and application ranking mechanisms, Palm's Katie Mitic said. 'As an incentive to developers interested in building their own directories, Palm is offering $1 million to the developer with the most downloads of free and paid applications between February and May, Mitic said. Palm also announced a plug-in development kit for WebOS that allows developers to extend the OS's capabilities using code written in C and C++. Over time, these plug-ins will be incorporated into the software development kit, she said. The plug-in development kit will be released at the Game Developers Conference in March, but a handful of game developers have already put the kit to use. EA Mobile, Laminar Research, Gameloft and Glu all released games that were developed using plug-ins. Those games include 3D titles, such as EA Mobile Need for Speed Undercover, and are now available.'

Who Said Bleeding Edge Doesnt Kick Ass

Brent — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:20:00 -0800

So, i found a great post (title link) of another guys experience using the bleeding edge video drivers, OpenGL libraries and newer Linux Kernels to get open source 3D effects on new age ATI video cards. Mind you there is AMD/ATI's driver but its performance is STILL very sub par and suffers from minor hindrances. Aside from my Desktop Cube effects failing at life (just sticking to one desktop) and no VirtualBox kernal module support (its coming in next update!) its smooth, and fast and damn well just work. Staying up into early morning was worth it i tell you! worth it! ...

Iowa State physicists beginning to see data from the Large Hadron Collider

Brent — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 08:03:00 -0800

Three Iowa State University physicists who took winter trips to the Large Hadron Collider for meetings and experimental work are starting to see real data from the planet's biggest science experiment. Finally.

The LHC, Black Holes, and the Law

Brent — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:33:00 -0800

"Now that the physicists have had their say over the safety of the Large Hadron Collider, a law professor has produced a comprehensive legal study addressing the legal issue that might arise were a court to deal with a request to halt a multi-billion-dollar particle-physics experiment (abstract). The legal issues make for startling reading. The analysis discusses the problem with expert witnesses, which is that any particle physicists would be afraid for their livelihoods and anybody else afraid for their lives. How can such evidence be relied upon? It examines the well established legal argument that death is not a redressable injury under American tort law, which could imply that the value in any cost-benefit analysis of the future of the Earth after it had been destroyed is zero (there would be nobody to compensate). It asks whether state-of-the-art theoretical physics is really able to say that the LHC is safe given that a scientific theory that seems unassailable in one era may seem naive in the next. But most worrying of all, it points out that the safety analyses so far have all been done by CERN itself. The question left open by the author is what verdict a court might reach."

...

Comments are worth a read. Pretty sure if a global collective of Scientists had the slightest clue it could destroy the earth I would think they would not do so. Even so its obvious the hype is overdone or just plain idiotic. Even a miniature black hole would evaporate with Hawking Radiation (theoretically) before it could somehow swell and eat the world. Or only if some other scientifically improbable thing would destroy us all... Fuck 2012, lets end it now! Check my next post for an article on the amount of Data the LHC is producing already, and the even more it will produce on its next higher energy run.

Quantum simulation of a relativistic particle

Brent — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:26:00 -0800

Researchers of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Innsbruck, Austria used a calcium ion to simulate a relativistic quantum particle, demonstrating a phenomenon that has not been directly observable so far: the Zitterbewegung. They have published their findings in the current issue of the journal Nature.

Supermassive black holes – the fathers of galaxies (?)

Brent — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:23:00 -0800

ONCE upon a time, a vast cloud of cold gas was floating in the void of space, a patch of inert blackness against the even deeper blackness behind. Then, as if from nowhere, a thin jet of matter streaked towards it at ultra-high speed. It slammed into the cloud, compressing its matter and triggering a firestorm of star formation. What had once been a dormant gas cloud was now a full-blown galaxy.

...

Interesting read as it summarizes a new postulated idea that galaxy formation is the result of older supper massive black holes injecting "life" so to speak into cold dark dust clouds through their jets of excreted high energy matter, that eventually lead to the initiation of star nurseries. Check the read out for yourself. Interesting idea and reasoning.

Iowa State physicists beginning to see data from the Large Hadron Collider

Brent — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:27:00 -0800

Machine Translates Thoughts into Speech in Real Time

Brent — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:38:00 -0800

(PhysOrg.com) -- By implanting an electrode into the brain of a person with locked-in syndrome, scientists have demonstrated how to wirelessly transmit neural signals to a speech synthesizer. The "thought-to-speech" process takes about 50 milliseconds - the same amount of time for a non-paralyzed, neurologically intact person to speak their thoughts. The study marks the first successful demonstration of a permanently installed, wireless implant for real-time control of an external device.

Intel Forced to Remove "Cripple AMD" Function from Compiler?

Brent — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:37:00 -0800

Here's something you probably don't know, but really should - especially if you're a programmer, and especially especially if you're using Intel's compiler. It's a fact that's not widely known, but Intel's compiler deliberately and knowingly cripples performance for non-Intel (AMD/VIA) processors.

Ireland's Blasphemy Law Goes Into Effect

Brent — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:19:00 -0800

As of January 1, it is a crime in Ireland to commit Blasphemy. The law was changed in July 2009 to fill a gap in the Irish Constitution, which states that it is a crime but does not define what it is, an omission highlighted in a Supreme Court decision in 1999. To mark the occasion, Atheist Ireland published a list of 25 blasphemous quotations on the blasphemy.ie website, from such controversial figures as Bjork, Frank Zappa, Richard Dawkins, Randy Newman, and Pope Benedict XVI. (The last-mentioned was quoting a 14th Century Byzantine Emperor, but that's no excuse.)

...

Ok, figured this hunk of bullshit was worth mentioning. Pesky religion.

CSS Primer and Stuff

Brent — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:32:00 -0800

Ok, so I ran across a cool app for taking in html and spitting out an external css style sheet based on any ids/classes in the markup. PrimerCSS So I figured I would attempt my own (albeit more basic) version (in ruby) for fun or maybe my own use. I don't go as in depth as PrimerCSS do, as I am missing additional features such as tag prefixes and child prefixing. Though I did some extra sorting and grouping. For example, my layout markup will result in this...

(Primer CSS)

/* CSS Generated by Primer - primercss.com */

div#global-loadingdiv {
	
}

div#global-popup-image {
	
}

div.global {
	
}

div.global-content-header {
	
}

div.global-content-nav {
	
}

div.global-content-banner {
	
}

div.global-content-main {
	
}

p.flash-notice {
	
}

div#global-content-stamp {
	
}

div.global-content-footer {
	
}

---------------------------------------------- (My script)

#global-content-stamp{

}

#global-loadingdiv{

}

#global-popup-image{

}

.flash-notice{

}

.global{

}

.global-content-banner{

}

.global-content-footer{

}

.global-content-header{

}

.global-content-main{

}

.global-content-nav{

}

---------------------------------------------- If anyone is interested, here is the source file.

64bit Linux, Flash, oh yeah.

Brent — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 10:37:00 -0800

One of the main falling points in running a nice smooth 64bit (aka x86_64 or amd64) Ubuntu installation is the support for Adobe's flash player. Now until HTML5 (link to chrome experiments here) comes fully into fruition Flash is the go to. Now to get 64bit flash working you can either install the 32 bit version with a wrapper package to make it properly work. Though from my experience it does not quite work right, leaving important functionality wonky or broken. The other method is to manually install Adobe's alpha version (for over a year now! common!) of the 64bit flash player, whether through a script or adding to the appropriate folders yourself. Bah you say, too much work, Flash should be out of the box. Well fortunately I came across a nifty post (at OMGUbuntu) that there is a PPA for a 64bit flash installer. So if you want to quickly get flash working without dealing with the small nuiances of proprietary packages then this is for you! Enjoy. I sure will. https://launchpad.net/~sevenmachines/+archive/flash

Back In Business

Brent — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:48:00 -0800

Woot, so finally back in business with my "relay". I would not think blog as I dont really post that much and if I do its most likely ranting. Or something unprofessional. Psssh. Thats what tinyHippos and Things and Stuff is for :). More cool shit to eventually come down the pipe. If anyone does listen in that is. Bah. Anyways, got my site back up and running on the epic Heroku hosting service. Seriously check that shit out! Brent