W3 School

Featuring one of the largest collections of tutorials and reference articles for web developers on the internet, W3 Schools offers a huge assortment of learning and training resources on just about every relevant language and web service in use on the web today. You’ll find content tailored towards the full range from beginner to expert developer along with code examples, quizzes, tutorials, and reference guides in a relatively clean and well-organized site complete with a well-trafficked forum community.

Reasons not to get iPad

Big, Ugly Bezel

Have you seen the bezel on this thing?! It's huge! I know you don't want to accidentally input a command when your thumb is holding it, but come on.

No Multitasking
This is a backbreaker. If this is supposed to be a replacement for netbooks, how can it possibly not have multitasking? Are you saying I can't listen to Pandora while writing a document? I can't have my Twitter app open at the same time as my browser? I can't have AIM open at the same time as my email? Are you kidding me? This alone guarantees that I will not buy this product.

No Cameras
No front facing camera is one thing. But no back facing camera either? Why the hell not? I can't imagine what the downside was for including at least one camera. Could this thing not handle video iChat?

Touch Keyboard
So much for Apple revolutionizing tablet inputs; this is the same big, ugly touchscreen keyboard we've seen on other tablets, and unless you're lying on the couch with your knees propping it up, it'll be awkward to use.

No HDMI Out
Want to watch those nice HD videos you downloaded from iTunes on your TV? Too damned bad! If you were truly loyal, you'd just buy an AppleTV already.

The Name iPad
Get ready for Maxi pad jokes, and lots of 'em!

No Flash
No Flash is annoying but not a dealbreaker on the iPhone and iPod Touch. On something that's supposed to be closer to a netbook or laptop? It will leave huge, gaping holes in websites. I hope you don't care about streaming video! God knows not many casual internet users do. Oh wait, nevermind, they all do.

Adapters, Adapters, Adapters
So much for those smooth lines. If you want to plug anything into this, such as a digital camera, you need all sorts of ugly adapters. You need an adapter for USB for god's sake.

It's Not Widescreen
Widescreen movies look lousy on this thing thanks to its 4:3 screen, according to Blam, who checked out some of Star Trek on one. It's like owning a 4:3 TV all over again!

Doesn't Support T-Mobile 3G
Sure, it's "unlocked." But it won't work on T-Mobile, and it uses microSIMs that literally no one else uses.

A Closed App Ecosystem
The iPad only runs apps from the App Store. The same App Store that is notorious for banning apps for no real reason, such as Google Voice. Sure, netbooks might not have touchscreens, but you can install whatever software you'd like on them. Want to run a different browser on your iPad? Too bad!

Apple iPad

Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage in San Francisco today and unveiled the iPad. The tablet device is “more intimate than a laptop, and it’s so much more capable than a smartphone,” according to Jobs. What it looks like is enlarged iPhone.

Jobs dandled the hardcover novel sized device in his hands, looking very close to the 10 inch screen many had predicted.

The device is .5 inches thick with a 9.7 inch screen. It weighs only 1.5 lbs and holds 10 hours of battery life.

It will hold either 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes of flash storage. It is wireless and Bluetooth equipped.

On the all-important application side, the iPad can run apps from Apple’s store in one of two ways: You can see it at the original size in middle of the iPad and with black around it or the iPad can double the pixels to run it full screen.

Windows Mobile 7

The Windows Mobile rumor mill is officially in overdrive after a blog by the name of Bright Side of News claimed it "spoke with representatives from Microsoft, Lenovo, Qualcomm, TI, Nokia, nVidia, HTC and many more" and the sources said Windows Mobile 7 had been delayed until 2011. This conflicts with invitations bloggers like istartedsomething received from Redmond to Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona regarding "several exciting announcements" about Microsoft's "consumer vision and grow opportunities for the mobile industry as a whole." Upon closer inspection though, Windows Mobile 7 is not mentioned specifically in the invitation.

Google is considering withdrawing from China

The attack was also made on about 20 large corporations operating in China and the company says it has evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

The unprecedented threat by the world biggest internet company casts China’s notorious disregard for intellectual property in an entirely new light and potentially raises a major obstacle for the country’s push for wider acceptance in the global community.

Google was criticised when it launched Google.cn in 2006 for accepting government censorship, but said this will now stop and over the next the few weeks will discuss with the Chinese government the basis on which it could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.

Toronto school board to stop buying Macs

The decision, which surfaced late last year, is now under fire from one school board trustee, who argues that students and staff should be exposed to more than just one computing platform. Find out why the board changed its policy. In an effort to cut costs, the Toronto District School Board plans to stop introducing new Apple Inc. computers into classrooms for general use.

The new internal IT policy could lead to most TDSB students only being exposed to PC computers. The exception to this rule will be for specialized school departments where Mac usage is seen as the industry standard, such as the Media Arts or Music disciplines.

Fingerprint protected iPhone

The iPhone 3G S promises faster hardware, a better camera, and an unannounced feature: a multitouch screen that repels skin oil. We discovered this new feature while browsing the iPhone How To--Cleaning iPhone, which reads:

To clean iPhone, unplug all cables and turn off iPhone (press and hold the Sleep/Wake button, then slide the onscreen slider). Then use a soft, slightly damp, lint-free cloth. Avoid getting moisture in openings. Don't use window cleaners, household cleaners, aerosol sprays, solvents, alcohol, ammonia, or abrasives to clean the iPhone. If your iPhone has an oleophobic coating on the screen (iPhone 3G S only), simply wipe your iPhone's screen with a soft, lint-free cloth to remove oil left by your hands and face.

According to Wikipedia, "Oleophobic (from the Greek (oleo) "oil") refers to the physical property of a molecule that is repelled from oil. The most common lipophobic/oleophobic substance is water."

(Credit: Phone Fingers)

Fingerprints on iPhone screens have been a source of consumer complaints since the release of the first iPhone in 2007. This new feature probably doesn't prevent fingerprints, but it likely makes the grease easier to wipe off. (If easier cleaning doesn't satisfy your need for neatness, try Phone Fingers--pictured below--but you only have yourself to blame if no one loves you while you wear them.)

Next generation of search engine

Even in the face of Wolfram Alpha, no one will deny that Google is a powerful research tool for our students. However, teasing out truly useful results can be challenging at best from the millions of pages returned by the average search. In response to this, Google revealed a new feature at their Searchology summit yesterday called Google Squared. To be released (not surprisingly) via Google Labs sometime close to the launch of Wolfram Alpha, squared adds an extra layer of semantic search to your Google research efforts.

As quoted in the Register, Google VP Marisa Mayer stated that

“One of the hardest problems in computer science is data abstraction - looking at the unstructured web and abstracting values and facts and information in a meaningful way in order to present it to users, building out some of these research spreadsheets in an automated way. But that’s no longer a hypothetical.”

The San Francisco Chronicle described the feature in a bit more detail:

compiles details from several Web pages and organizes them into a table on a single page, with multiple columns like a spread sheet. A search for “small dogs,” for instance, returns a list of breeds, an accompanying image and a brief description, plus the average height and weight of each breed.

Even Google acknowledged that this was still very much a “labs” feature that was imperfect at best. However, between Wolfram Alpha, Google’s efforts in semantic search, and a host of competitors that will be popping up in this field, we may very well be on the edge of Search 3.0. This is good news for our students, teachers, and library scientists struggling to help our students get the information they want from the billions of pages of junk (and millions of pages of interest) floating around the web.

Windows 7 release this year

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) disclosed more details on its timetable for finishing up work on the Windows 7 operating system. An official at the software maker said the company hopes to release the OS to its manufacturing division by about mid-August.

"We expect to hit RTM in about 3 months or so," said Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, in a post Monday. LeBlanc said a mid-August release to manufacturing (RTM) would be contingent on Microsoft receiving feedback from Windows 7 Release Candidate users that "meets our expectations in terms of quality."

Microsoft Windows senior VP Bill Veghte on Monday confirmed what many in the computer industry have come to suspect -- that Microsoft intends to ship a final version of Windows 7 to stores and PC makers sometime later in 2009.

"With early RC testing and extensive partner feedback we've received, Windows 7 is tracking well for holiday availability," said Veghte, in a statement. The RTM process includes disc mastering and reproduction, as well as other manufacturing tasks, and generally takes about three months.

LeBlanc, in his blog, further emphasized that Microsoft won't take shortcuts in order to get Windows 7 out the door before the calendar turns. "I want to underscore that our top priority remains QUALITY. This guidance does not alter that principle," said LeBlanc.

Microsoft has good reason to be wary of shipping Windows 7 until it's ready for prime time. Windows Vista, the company's current OS, experienced a number of setbacks almost from the moment it debuted in January 2007. Problems included incompatible applications and device drivers, and user complaints about Vista's hefty hardware requirements and intrusive security measures that sought manual approval for even the most routine tasks.

Microsoft rival Apple wasted no time in lampooning Vista's foibles through a series of commercials, featuring the cool Mac guy and nerdy PC guy, that became instant classics in the ad and tech industries. Dissatisfaction with Vista also caused most major enterprises to shun the OS and hang on to predecessor Windows XP well past its intended shelf life.

Microsoft, which saw Windows sales fall 16% in the most recent quarter, is hoping Windows 7's early favorable reviews, as well as new features such as built-in touch screen support, will help it overcome the Vista debacle.

The math of a happy marriage

The eternal question: What makes a marriage last?

Now, thanks to a survey of 3,000 Brits, there's not just a pat schmaltzy answer, but a by-the-numbers recipe.

You need to say "I love you" daily, share two hobbies, and have sex three times a week.

And that's not all. You're supposed to communicate – phone, text or email – three times a day during work hours, enjoy two romantic meals a month and exchange four kisses and three cuddles daily.

In other words, you have to work at it.

Researchers interviewed people who had been happily married for 10 years or longer about their opinions and experiences. The survey was done for confetti.co.uk, a wedding website.

"People here are most surprised by the need for daily kisses and cuddles. Everyone seems amazed by that," says Confetti spokesperson Carol Richardson.

Brits need to relax that stiff upper lip? They're not smooching and snuggling enough?

"That's probably the case," says Richardson. "It's free, easy and we all should be doing it."

Researchers determined that the ideal couple in a good marriage likely met through friends and dated for three-and-a-half years before getting married. At the wedding, the groom was 31 and the bride was 29.

They waited two years and two months to have kids.

Somehow they manage to get away together three times a year for holidays and they spend three nights a week nestled together on the couch watching television. Presumably, to save time, this could be the same three nights a week they have sex.

But it's not all kissy-face. The ideal formula includes two separate outings a month – girls' nights and boys' nights.

"You need time apart to pursue your interests," says Richardson, "and bring something fresh back to the relationship."

by Nancy J. White

Canadian scientists develop new "mind-reading" technology

Finally they come up with this machine that can read mind. All husband or boy friend should get one, or better yet all wives should get one for their spouse.

See Detail here.

Happy 25th birthday to Macintosh

On January 24, 1984, Apple announced the Macintosh to it Board of Directors and to the world. And the computer world has never been the same.

A year earlier, Apple had unveiled the $10,000 Lisa, the first business computer with a graphical user interface and a mouse. The Lisa never caught on, but Apple was enamored of the concept.

It was an era of conformity. Although you could still buy an Apple II, TRS-80, Commodore, or CP/M computer, MS-DOS was the de facto standard.

Apple made a bold move, thinking different long before it became an ad slogan. And the rest, as they say, is history, a history Low End Mac examines in a series of articles, each covering one year in the life of the Macintosh.

Audi RS6 gets stupid fast treatment

It seems Audi was getting tired of having sand kicked in its face by the 500 hp V10 BMW M5 and the 507 hp V8 Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG, so they slapped a couple of turbos on the Lamborghini-derived 5.0 L V10 in the S6 Avant, et voilà: 580 horsepower and 479 lb.-ft of thundering torque available from 1500 to 6250 rpm. In a wagon. Pure insanity.

For 2009, the sedan gets the RS6 treatment.

The Europe-only package is completed by dark-finish 19-inch alloys lurking within blistered bodywork, three-stage electronic damping, a six-speed paddle-shiftable auto-box, and Quattro all-wheel-drive with a 60 per cent rear bias.

Inside you'll find highly bolstered sport seats and a flat-bottomed steering wheel (all real suede in this tester that costs the equivalent of about $150,000) that signal things to come.

Press the start button on the console and the V10 barks to life and settles into a somewhat off-beat, flatulent idle. Not pretty but ominous as a pea-green sky.

Rumbling down the dirt road from Schloss Dyck Castle, the ride was firm but not harsh. Once on a straight stretch of tarmac, the hammer went down and the RS6 exploded towards the horizon. The blown V10 bellows like a moose in heat, the wastegates wuffle between shifts and your corneas come perilously close to meeting your retinas. On the autobahn, it was pulling with this ferocity at 225 km/h.

The RS6 does not drive like the lithe 420 hp V8 RS4. It's big, it's front heavy, the steering is a bit numb but it does have more grip than you'll ever use on public roads. Most of all, it's just stupid, laughably fast.

And they say the Germans don't have a sense of humour.

Is Canon EOS 50D better than 40D?

The EOS 50D is the latest incarnation of a product line that has always reliably delivered on image quality and you won't find any nasty surprises in this review either. The 50D delivers a lot of detail and clean images with well balanced contrast and colors that leave some latitude for 'customization' in post processing. Canon's standard-across-the-range Picture Style tone and color combination also produce consistent performance between models, which is useful if you're moving up from a 'smaller' model.

Having said that, in terms of detail the 50D is not quite the step up from the 40D that we would have expected. After all the new model's nominal resolution has increased by approximately 22% in both dimensions. There is only a very small amount of extra detail in the 50D output though (in fact even at 100%, if you scale the 40D's output up to match the 50D the results are almost indistinguishable). While the new sensor makes the 50D the highest megapixel APS-C DSLR currently on the market it also makes it the one with the highest pixel density and it appears that Canon has reached the limit of what is sensible, in terms of megapixels, on an APS-C sensor (using current technology). At a pixel density of 4.5 MP/cm² (40D: 3.1 MP/cm², 1Ds MkIII: 2.4 MP/cm²) the lens becomes the limiting factor. Even the sharpest primes at optimal apertures cannot (at least on the edges of the frame) satisfy the 15.1 megapixel sensor's hunger for resolution. The result is images that look comparatively soft at a pixel level and only show marginally more detail than images from a good ten or twelve megapixel DSLR. If all you end up with is a larger image (and file) one starts to wonder what the whole point of pushing the resolution up to these dizzying heights is.

Considering the disadvantages that come with higher pixel densities such as diffraction issues, increased sensitivity towards camera shake, reduced high ISO performance and the need to store, move and process larger amounts of data, one could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that at this point the megapixel race should probably stop.

Just to make it clear, the 50D's image quality is (at identical viewing size) and by no means worse than the competition's but it's also not significantly better than the 40D's (Dynamic range and high ISO performance are even slightly worse) and that simply makes one wonder if the EOS 50D would have been an (even) better camera if its sensor had a slightly more moderate resolution.

iNotes

IBM has been talking about iNotes for a number of months, but only recently released teaser photos of the up and coming iPhone native App. The app will bring Lotus Domino message server services to the iPhone via a web App client. It will support Domino email, calendar and contacts.

According it IBM’s website the App will be built around IBM Lotus Domino Web Access infrastructure giving users access to Domino data using the iPhones rich user interface.

You can view some tentative screenshots of the App here. The site notes that the interface is subject to change, probably due to IBM’s check of the interface against Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone.

IBM has also posted documents about iPhone pp development using Ruby, Eclipse, and Netcon

This development, along with other options in the Enterprise software space like Sybase, MS Exchange via Activesync, etc. will aid in the iPhone’s enterprise-level adoption.

Playstation 3 losing $$$

PlayStation 3 console cost so much to develop and make that the company will find it difficult to recoup its losses.

After retailers and distributors have taken their cut, Sony is likely to make anything from 40 to 75 per cent margin on these sales.

At this rate, the PS3 may never be anywhere near as profitable as earlier PlayStation models.

However, with every console sold Sony is also seeding homes with Blu-ray players for which it can sell Blu-ray DVD movie titles at much higher margins.

Power hungry

Games consoles, such as the X-box and Sony's Playstation 3, can use up to five times more energy than a medium-sized refrigerator, according to an Australian study.

The consumer group Choice found that a Sony PS3, switched on but not in use, could cost almost $250 a year in electricity bills. A fridge would cost less than $50 a year.

The Playstation 3 was found to consume over ten times as much power as the Nintendo Wii. The Apple iMac used just two-thirds of the energy consumed by a PC.

With the oil price skyrocketing everyone is trying to save energy it can be a concern.

Under $100 notebook

The revamped machine created by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project looks like an e-book and has had its price slashed to $75 per device.

OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte gave a glimpse of the "book like" device at an unveiling event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The first XO2 machines should be ready to deliver to children in 2010.

At the MIT event, Prof Negroponte announced the resumption of the Get-One-Give-One programme to allow people in wealthy nations to buy two XO laptops and donate one to a child in a developing country.

The programme will be open to people in North America and Europe and start in August or September.

Want to see how this will help children in Africa click here...

Playstation 3 portable

Not sure if anyone ever thinking of bringing their PS3 to party, if you do this may be for you. There is a portable version available for auction soon. Wonder how much people are willing to pay for it.

Want to see how it looks? Here you go. Go to this site
for more details and pictures.

DDR memory

Recently I was looking for DDR Ram to upgrade my old PC. To my surprise I found the DDR Ram is actually more expensive than DDR2 Ram, it is almost double the price. One of the reason is that DDR3 Ram is due now even though it is quite expensive around $120 per Gb. But I don't understand how that can make money when DDR2 are selling under $50 per 2Gb kit. Unless they are ripping us off all along. I remember not long ago I was paying $120 for 512MB SDRAM. Anyway, I'm glad that the price is falling so rapidly as I may consider buying a new system soon.

My current PC system is over 7 years old the only thing I've upgraded is the harddrive other than that it is still working fine with Windows XP. Surfing the net is no problem thanks to my cable modem, it is running at 5M download speed, however I doubt that they can handle Vista. I have Vista installed on my notebook which has Core2 Duo 2GHz CPU and 2G Ram, it is running fine but I don't think my Athlon XP desktop will work even if I put more memory.

It is time to study the latest hardwares and hopefully I can come up with an affordable configuration that can last me another few years.