Awesome Tech for 2013

Check this little gadget out. It's a hand-motion-tracking device for your desktop. Minority Report gesture type for everyone (with out the gloves)! The future is really bright for devices like these and a lot of people would want to just sit back and control their device just by waving their hands around! We will definitely see a lot of them out there and awesome software to do stuff with them. (Hm...3D Studio Max with Leap Motion support. Might start 3D modeling again if that happens). The company that makes it will start shipping them early 2013 and they already take pre-orders. If you're also a developer you can apply for an SDK on their website.

Cheap or Entry Level Gaming Rig

Sutherland's Acer Ad

Megan Fox's Acer Ad

There's Light In The Tunel For Linux

Valve announced the limited availability of Steam for Linux. This is indeed great news for the Linux community. In fact Linux users are never considered in the plans of the making of games in other gaming companies. If Steam for Linux get's released, more and more titles will get added that will support Linux, we'll see a lot of PC users turn to Linux ( because Linux rules :) ). There's currently a free-to-play available for Linux gamers, with the game Team Fortress 2 and a few other titles. Valve received 60.000 requests for participating in the Steam for Linux beta and most of them were from the Ubuntu distro community. That means that Steam for Linux will be available only to that distro for this beta, but they promised to expand and include other popular distros as well (please, please, please, support Mint)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Dragonborn

Watch the trailer for Dragonborn, the next official game add-on for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Dragonborn will be available for download for 1600 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE on December 4.

Biased Results

I saw this video today of a guy drop testing a Google Nexus 7, an iPad mini and an iPad3. Well, my first thought was that the dropping test done on this video isn't really a comprehensive test. To get real results you should drop test more than one of each of the devices and gather more data.

Here is the video by the way:

Even the conclusion on this video is bad, "...the iPad mini held up best." What? How much did apple pay you? The only one that survived all tests was the Nexus. Both apple products had their screens shattered completely, while the Nexus took minor damage. My conclusion from this video is that the Nexus is the best, durability-wise. But I will say it again, you need a lot of drop tests and water submersions to truly get conclusive results.

Best Time To Buy RAM

According to a blog post at Tom's Hardware, we are at a point where DRAM is really cheap. Soo cheap that manufacturers are loosing money producing the modules.

So if you were thinking to buy ram modules to upgrade your computers, now is the time. I'm thinking a 12GB (3x4GB) triple channel set for me would come in handy with all the virtual machines I'm running on my system.

The post:

DRAMeXchange said that contract prices for 4GB DDR3 memory modules fell below $16 and there is no sign of a changing trend as the $15 mark is in sight.
At the time of this writing, the DRAM market exhibited severe volatility with spot prices of 4 Gb DDR3 1600 MHz chips ranging from $2.65 to $1.75. 2 Gb chips dropped as low as $0.80, while 1 Gb versions are selling for about $0.60. It is estimated that these prices are already below production cost and DRAM makers will have to react with production cuts beyond already announced cuts.
Last month, Nanya and Inotera said they are reducing their output by about 20 percent, while Elpida and Rexchip cut their production back in August. ProMOS has entirely abandoned the DRAM business. At this time, it does not appear that DRAM makers can hope that demand for PCs will pick up significantly until the second half of 2013.
IHS recently argued that the growth opportunity may be in DRAM for smartphones and tablets instead.

 Source: Tom's Hardware

Supercomputer Build Time-lapse

Volunteer students, professors and friends of the university of Zurich have built a supercomputer for the department of physics. This cluster has a theoretical compute capacity of 1% of the human brain.

Link to the Zbox4 page: link
Enjoy the video!

Japanese Tech ftw!

Those Japanese engineers are crazy! Look at some really cool tech that's coming out in the near future! Crazy thin displays and low-power consumption!

Breakthrough In Quantum Computing

Software allows combining of multiple internet connections

How would you feel if you could harness the power or bandwidth of more than one internet connection for super fast downloads? A small startup, Connectify, does just that with their software, Dispatch. With Dispatch you'll be able to connect multiple network sources into one beefy pipe for ultra fast download rates. Good news for BitTorrenters... ;)

The team also started a Kickstarter campaign for financial backing. You can help them and get early access to the software.

Watch a demonstration:

 

Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror

NASA JPLNews posted a video showing how the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory will occur. This is a very complex landing system, hope they get it right. Actual landing date is August the 5th, 2012

165TB of New Imagery Added to Bing Maps

Bing Maps released a new set of imagery to their maps service, Bing Maps. This publication is the largest set to be released by bing ever. The latest Aerial release includes new Satellite imagery as well as Global Ortho photography. Both releases total 165 terabytes of new data live on Bing Maps. Prior to this, our existing Aerial footprint was 129 terabytes total.

AERIAL: HIGH-RESOLUTION NADIR OR "STRAIGHT DOWN" ORTHOPHOTOS TAKEN BY AIRCRAFT OR SATELLITE

This release features imagery over North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Europe and Asia. The total area covered in this data release is nearly 38 million square kilometers.

Testing dlvr.it

Testing dlvr.it

Logitech Mouse for MMO Gamers

Logitech announced a new addition to the Logitech G-Series: The G600 MMO Gaming Mouse, highly customizable and easy-to-use mouse specifically designed for MMO gamers.

The mouse features 20 programmable buttons – including 12 thumb buttons, set in two groups of six on a meticulously designed thumb panel – all in easy reach for quick and easy no-look navigation and faster game play. With three default profiles – two for MMOs and one for general gaming – it’s set up for optimal use right out of the box, no drivers required. And, it has a G-Shift button that easily doubles the number of actions you can perform, giving you complete control in your favorite MMOs.

RIP Mr. Trololo - Eduard Khil (1934-2012)

Solar Powered Keyboard by Logitech

Logitech launched a super awesome must-have gadget earlier this week. A solar powered wireless keyboard for Macs, iPads or iPhones. Too bad it's only for Mac or iOS devices, it would have been awesome to be compatible with my Asus Transformer. So if you're all about green and small CO2 footprints this is for you and of course if you like super awesome gadgets.

Features:

• Light Powered (Obviously) even indoors and in low light condition. If fully charged it will work for an extended period of time (three months) If you're in the arctic circle with two of these babies you're set for 6 months of darkness, bad thing is that only your keyboard will have power and not your mobile devices.
• Bluetooth
• Concave Key Design
• PVC-Free construction, fully recyclable box - For all you tree-huggers :p

Your eCountry Needs You - What is eRepublik

Ever heard of eRepublik?

What is Erepublik?

Erepublik is a massive multiplayer online (MMO) game. It hosts 69 different countries. Each country has its own population which is made up of the people that join up to that country. You work and fight your way to success! You can also become a country's president and sign treaties and other agreements (or start wars) There are also eNews Papers you can start and post articles about in-game economics or the constant in-game warfare.

How much does it cost to play?

Sign up is free and there are no monthly fees at all! But if you want to get serious you can buy extra boosters and upgrades from an in-game store.

What's the point?

Erepublik is a social-stratergy game. Social as its about communicating what-your-all-about and encouraging others to follow you and stratergy, as once you have people that respect you or are willing to work with you, you can do so much more...

What are you waiting for? Sign up here.

Want To Learn Android Application Development?

Developing applications for mobiles is very common nowadays, and an increasingly amount of people are diving into the world of mobile app development. After all mobile application can offer a significant amount of income with a wide audience of consumers. With over 300 million devices and 800.000 getting activated every day it means serious business for a lot of mobile application development companies. So if you're one of those people with a passion on learning new stuff and want to get started, then here is a small list with good places to start. This list is for Android development only and is just a recommendation. Furthermore a degree in information technology and or other computer sciences would be also recommended to get a job as a mobile software developer.

Before you start: 

• You should have basic understanding of programming in general.
• A solid background with the Java programming language.

A good place to start would be the official Android Developers website. It is The most complete manual in the web with complete documentation for all API levels and with basic tutorials for creating applications.

Android Developers

As with any kind of software development, Google is you friend! Search for discussion boards, forums, tutorials and other sources and don't be afraid to ask questions on how-to's about Android development. A good place to ask is Stackoverflow, a Q&A board.

A while ago, I was looking into Android development my self and my preference for learning is Audio-Visual instead of reading a huge book. I searched Youtube and found a very interesting channel. Marakana TechTV. They offer some of their high quality seminars for free on Youtube. A visit on their channel is a must.

Marakana TechTV

Of course there thousands more videos and websites offering knowledge, others for free others for a small fee. I would suggest the free route but this will also be the hardest. You should learning all the basics for free and create a solid foundation with this free knowledge. After that if you're still serious about developing for mobiles, you should start buying more advanced books on other topics like game development, NDK (native development in C++), seminars etc.

Now what about software? If you ask any Android developer 99% of them will answer Eclipse. The Eclipse IDE (integrated development environment) is the #1 choice for Android development with a deeply engrained support of Android. Eclipse is used by most professionals and not only for Android but for other languages as well. If you're already familiar with Java you should know about Eclipse.

http://eclipse.org/

For readers who want to start from scratch, there are two Youtube channels I would recommend for learning Java. 1st is Bucky's Youtube channel with a long course of Java programming tutorials and 2nd is MyBringBack Channel with also a long list of Java tutorials. Both of these guys offer them freely and do a very good job on teaching. So pay them a visit and decide which tutorial format you like and also browse their other playlists because they also offer Android development tutorials.

Bucky's The New Boston

MyBringBack

So there you go. A few resources that should get you started with Android development. Hope you find the information on this post useful and develop something really awesome and make big bucks! ;)

Good luck!

A Must See For SciFi Fans Next Month! (Movies)

Watch this Teaser Trailer

IMDB - Prometheus

Hydroponics Project Update #2

My project is going really sloooooow. The thing is that I can't find all the required materials needed to complete this project in my area and in my country in general. I had ordered a 12v water pump from ebay like a month ago (April 13th) and received it just today (May 11th). By now I should have had tomato plants 15cm in height and I've got nothing. :( I will not give up. I will complete this project no matter what.

Hydroponics Project Update #1

The weather here in Northern Greece this past 5 days was horrible. So I couldn't really do much on my build. So this update is more like a situation report. I decided what plants to plant... tomatoes!

I'm currently awaiting more hardware for my build, like the net-pots. I'm also looking into electronics for interfacing the Micro-controller (Arduino UNO) with two 12V pumps (water & air), interfacing the probes (ph & EC). I know a lot about the physics of electronic components but haven't really done any real implementations. So I'm mostly in the dark on that front.

If any one knows how to interface a 12V pump with an Arduino please post on the comments below. I have found a few websites with technical details and things look relatively easy.

Augmented Reality Contact Lenses

Hydroponics Project

I've started building a small scale hydroponics system do grow some hot peppers or something else. I'll be posting progress updates when ever I add something new to the system. Up until now I have made an easel (I think it's called an easel) see the pictures bellow and tell me what you think.