TIME recently reported that many fans of Swedish furniture and lifestyle store Ikea are appalled with the decision to move from Futura to Verdana for use in Ikea’s catalogues and print ads. Most complaints note that Verdana was designed to be read on computer screens, and looks amateurish in other contexts. After checking out some photos of Ikea’s new promotional materials, it’s hard to say they’re wrong.

On a related note, on the August 18 episode of Best Show on WFMU, writer Matt Fraction voiced his desire for a bumper sticker that said Semper Fi in Comic Sans. So, Gutterheads, if you could make a major font swap happen, what would you do? Replace Garamond with Sand on your resume, and show future employers your edge? Use Curls MT for this poster?

Un-Helvetica the world? Negative points for anyone thinking about making a Wingdings
joke. Too easy, friend.

Can I just say how clever Apple was to abandon the numeric naming of its operating systems. Without having the reference of OS 9.5 or OS 7.0 to jog the memory of past, less impressive operating systems, each of Apples’ OS X iterations stands as a unique creation. The only thing connecting them (Panther, Tiger, Jaguar, Leopard, etc.) is images of strong, big cats connoting speed, power, and grace. What a wonderful marketing feat. Don Draper would be proud.

Snow Leopard has arrived (29 dollars, but if you bought your Apple computer after June 8, you’re probably qualified for the upgrade for nine dollars), and in Apple’s words, it’s an evolution, not a revolution. The user interface remains mostly unchanged, and there are no entirely new programs or additions.

Instead, the upgrade includes lots of tweaks to the user interface, and some hefty behind the scenes changes. All of the operating system’s programs will now take advantage of the Intel chip’s 64-bit processing power. In addition, the entire OS is considerably smaller, so more space for music and movies.

In the end, the upgrade will be well worth the 29 dollars. Change the GUI, and people will drop hundreds of dollars on the newer flashier OS, but since Apple make many visible changes, you get the benefit of having a cheaper yet still significant upgrade.

Update: New York Times just published a review: Apple’s Sleek Upgrade

According to the Wc3, 90% of people accessing the internet today are using either a version of Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. That statistic has been pretty unchanging since Mozilla debuted Firefox replacing its original self-titled browser, even though there have been many many alternatives to the two browsing titans. Opera, AOL, Netscape, and Safari have all held at least a measurable portion of the market, but they have never made and individual dent of greater than 3%.

Experts in International Relations would call Firefox’s and IE’s relationship a case of dueling spheres of influence, and when we consider the browser itself as the hegemon and the various developers and support sites as other minor countries within the hegemon’s orbit, the analogy to international relations becomes even more appropriate. This stability of the two main players* looks to be coming to an end quite soon. Google has released a new set of versions of its browser Chrome. The browser is now in beta 3.0 for Window and pre-alpha 4.0 for Mac. (pre-Alpha comes before Beta, which is the stage at which the software is supposed to be released to a limited test audience to look for errors and problems in the software. Google though has pioneered the new use of Beta to really mean anything. I guess they think it sounds cool.).

GMail ate up Yahoo Mail and Hotmail. Google Docs popularized a whole new category of software. Google Chrome looks like it will both eat up existing software while redefining the expectations of a browser. It will eat up other browsers because it’s fast. 30% faster than Safari and a good deal faster than Firefox. It runs Javascript faster, it loads faster, it displays what it loads faster. It’s also lighter and less hardware intensive. It’s unfortunate because if either IE or Firefox is going to lose more users to Chrome, it’ll be everyone’s favorite underdog, Firefox. 30% of total internet users are still using old versions of IE even though newer ones are available. It’s silly to think that they’ll search out a new browser when they aren’t even updated to the newest version of the browser they currently use.

But Chrome also looks to add new features that most of us would never consider part of the realm of a browser. Integrating Google Docs into the browser, you’ll have to ask yourself when you want to type on Google’s word processor if you are typing on your desktop or on the internet. Few of us have ever actually downloaded a piece of software from Google. All the action has been performed over the internet, in a window pane created by our OS and browser. But once you’ve downloaded Google’s browser, you’ll have given Google a platform to directly interface with your computer without that pesky internet connection getting in the way. You gave this power to Mozilla and Microsoft without even thinking and because they latter already controls your desktop, they didn’t do too much with it. But Google will be another story. The creativity Google has shown in their other programs—Google Reader is a perfect example, who would have thought you could cull and organize that much data from people’s RSS feeds—make the imagination run wild at what they’ll will do with your entire computer’s hardware at it’s disposal.

Will this be 1984 or Back to the Future? I sure hope it’s the latter!

*I realize they’re not stable, and that Firefox has leached a huge percent of users from IE. But that’s obvious, right? Who else can Firefox steal users from?

If you are IT professional, it is a need to update themselves with last technologies and to obtain the valid certificates of the pioneers. With the increasing challenges in industry of TI, it is wise to be equipped with knowledge and the qualifications required before the need are felt. The certification of MCSE is a manner surefire with a better career and higher wages. However, it is a task Hercule ennui to control your profession, family and to prepare at the same time with these examinations with elevated level. It is impossible to follow the direct classes or to join the institutes which need your physical presence. Here smart manner to prepare for the certification of MCSE without leaving the comfort of your house.

The formation on line became the most convenient manner to prepare with certifications. With the difference of the conventional institutes the formation on line is due less expensive to the air fresh bottoms incurred by the institutes on line. The materials of course of these institutes are prepared by strongly – qualified personnel and of time to other updated to equip with the trainees of best knowledge to obtain the strongly valid certification of MCSE. The institutes on line provide best the resources and guides of study to help you to prepare with the career amplifying the competing examinations. With more and more them companies to require their employees to be up to date it is easy for you to be formed on line during office hours.

There is a certain number of institutes on line which specialize in students of formation for the examination of certification of MCSE. Each one the institute has its own model to train their students for the examinations. They strongly employ – the professionals qualified to prepare their guides of study and samples of demonstration for the better arrangement of the students. Several of the training institutes on line offer a money behind guarantee to encourage professionals and students unite their organizations.

It is always great to see when people really take the time to evaluate what the customer needs (actually wants)….  Got to love the move from straight lines…..

Excuse the pun, but I couldn’t pass it up.  Elon Musk the CEO of Telsa Motors provides good insight to why they should be driving us into the future…….   You can count on Telsa as a serious contender in the future of personal transportation.

emWave wants to remind you that their Personal Stress Reliever can break-up your 401K/joblessness/foreclosure/Iran/crime/drugs/addiction/gas prices/trans-fats/chemtrails/pollution/disease/death/anthrax/terrorism/infertility/impotency/ADHD/COPD/asthma/helicopter parenting/taxation worries… (I first wrote about the chill-out gadget in 2007.)

Photo: CC/Josh McKible

I can easily envision guns that not only recognize their owners, but can also (through their sweat, pulse, or some other means) determine their intentions.

Imagine: A gun that locks-up if it senses a vengeful heart, or if it can tell that you are “on the run” from the law.

Noble’s got it:

When a gov’t votes to implement a new technology “as soon as it is available,” you can usually count on it being just around the corner.

“If the person is not recognized, the gun would not be unlocked, so the gun would not fire,” said Ho Chang, from Austria-based Nanoident Biometrics.

via The Noble Lie – Smart Guns around the corner.

I remember the day when I found a little tool that allowed me to store my passwords, credit card info, and basically any account information securely on my palm PDA.   Well it has been a long time since I had a palm, and probably even longer since I used STRIP.  Well those days will be behind me soon.   STRIP is coming to the iPhone.

So all you security minded admins, and paranoid people out, or just the average joe looking to store information securely check back for my review of the released product.

She'd be just as sexy with an e-smoke. Photo: Kanaka's Paradise Life

The worst thing about smoking fags, docs say, is the smoke. Enter the e-cigarette, which uses a computer chip and a heating element to vaporize a nicotine gel insert.

That’s the good news, for smokers trying to quit.

The bad news is that the FDA hates the idea, and is suggesting in this San Jose Merc bit (link, excerpt, below) that the agency is about to crack-down on the smoke-free alternative to cancer sticks.

With so many fish to fry, I hope the feds decide to lay-off this technology, which might actually save some lives. Instead, I’d like to see the agency do its job, such as ensuring that generic drugs makers in China and Mexico, for example, are not stuffing their pills with dry wall, and coating them with road paint.

I do share the concerns of an American Lung Association director, however. These are reflected in this brilliant quote she gives the Merc: “If you had a serial killer who liked to stab people, would you give him a rubber knife?”

The point is that reduction technologies, such as Swedish Snus, are only the start of recovery for many addicts. That’s because, when they are not available, most will simply light-up again to get their fix.

Also, vaporizers have been found to release ammonia, which has been linked to cancer.

Last summer a Florida company began aggressively marketing e-cigarettes — which emit a nicotine vapor with the help of a computer chip — but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now seems poised to pull e-cigs from the market because the agency considers them “new drugs.” That means they need approval from the FDA, which requires companies to back up their claims with scientific data.

“It is illegal to sell or market them, and the FDA is looking into this,” said Rita Chappelle, an agency spokeswoman.

via E-cigarette sparks attention as FDA crackdown looms – San Jose Mercury News.

Although this was slashdot’d, Robot Love I couldn’t pass up on sharing.
Just for moment, have you ever thought about what the true worry surrounding robots would be. Not evil, but love….. Wow- the future sure has many hills to climb, and I am sure technology will make them harder, and bigger to climb. Add to that, stalker robots running amok.

We all have some old hard-drives laying around.  It would be wonderful to use them  to back up or store specific items.   Amazon has a great dock that supports 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives.  So all those old hard-drives, no matter how small- have a second chance at being leveraged as back up devices……

We all know that tracking changes to our code during development is important-  There are many tools out that allow us to do this.  Over the last several months I have been leveraging GIT.   A functional version control tool for both local development and for a  broad federated development model.   GIT is a tool that follows the true UNIX idea of doing one thing, and doing it very well. (about).
Every Git clone (local repository) is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access or a central server. Branching and merging are fast and easy to do.

By Chris M. Thomas

Few days back I started using Twitter out of curosity expecting my mobile to be jammed with sms updates but I was dismayed that I didn’t even get one. I started researching and I found out that Twitter stopped sending “international” sms from August last year because if they continued sending sms aligning with their growing popularity from one network to another then their balance sheet will all be red.

According to their blog, international billing problems and the high cost of providing the service in some markets (73 Euros for 35 tweets) made no sense to them and decapitated their ability even to charge users. Twitter is not the same without sms updates even though you have 3G or a broadband connection.

As a matter of fact I don’t like to use my computer all the time just to read the 140 character updates or to browse its ailing site through my mobile. I don’t like to spoil my keypads and straining my eyes to update my status+

I researched even some more and I found out a site that offers free Twitter sms supported by wadja.com

http://www.twe2.com

This site offer free sms for Twitter users even thought its a little bit rusty. You also have the option to receive tweets by entering the keywords that you like. You can also change the number of tweets you wish to receive and on which day of the week you desire to receive them. For Church going people, you don’t want to feel the sense of vibration in your pocket every hour receiving tweets in your mobile.

Upon registeration you receive an activation code that you need to enter and activate. This site is not affliated to Twitter in an way.

Technorati : BREAKING NEWS, FREE SMS, FREE TWITTER INTERNATIONAL SMS, FREE TWITTER SMS, INTERNET, INTERNET NEWS, LATEST NEWS, LATEST WEBSITES, MUSIC, NEWS, PERSONAL TECH, SOCIAL NETWORKING, TECHNOLOGY, TWITS, TWITTER, sms, tweets
Del.icio.us : BREAKING NEWS, FREE SMS, FREE TWITTER INTERNATIONAL SMS, FREE TWITTER SMS, INTERNET, INTERNET NEWS, LATEST NEWS, LATEST WEBSITES, MUSIC, NEWS, PERSONAL TECH, SOCIAL NETWORKING, TECHNOLOGY, TWITS, TWITTER, sms, tweets
Zooomr : BREAKING NEWS, FREE SMS, FREE TWITTER INTERNATIONAL SMS, FREE TWITTER SMS, INTERNET, INTERNET NEWS, LATEST NEWS, LATEST WEBSITES, MUSIC, NEWS, PERSONAL TECH, SOCIAL NETWORKING, TECHNOLOGY, TWITS, TWITTER, sms, tweets
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The personal computer is just about as important as anything and plays a major role in most of our lives. It’s not only just something to jump on and play games or run a painting application any longer. There are many people in all sorts of professions that utilize computers and depend on them for almost everything in every aspect of their lives. There are several things that you need to know regarding how to fix a slow computer and prevent your PC from experiencing system problems.

The specifics and step-by-step details of fully repairing the Windows operating system is beyond the scope of this article but there is a mass of further information on operating system maintenance as well as a chance to download a free registry fixing program to your computer to test out on my computer system preservation website. You can also refer to it for digging up essential information on common Windows fix solutions as well as what to do when your computer still isn’t functioning.

It used to be that that the majority of people would come home from a hard days work and flip on the TV set. While the majority of people still have this routine, others are reaching for their keyboard and mouse verses the television remote.

For a great central starting point for all your audio, video and backup needs, Nero (http://www.nero.com/eng/support-faq.html?s=sub&t=Startsmart) offers Nero StartSmart, a customizable program, sure to help simplify your computer tasks.

Heidi Ball is a freelance writer.

The iPod shuffle was the first even model of iPods to imbibe a flash memory. It was launched for the first time in January 2005, and since then one more generation has been launched. Weighing just about 15gms, the iPod Shuffle was developed for the hardcore traveler who just couldn’t do without music. When it was introduced along with the iPod Nano, the Shuffle was the smallest device ever to be made by apple.

the smallest device ever to be made by apple.

The first generation of iPod Shuffle was one of the most basic audio devices to be marketed by apple. It had no screen and was available only in white color. It resembled a pen-drive in structure, except for the trademark apple ‘click rotate’ button and was available only in the 512MB and 1 GB versions in its first launch in January ‘05. The first Gen iPod shuffle worked on Mac 10.2 OS and was also compliant with windows 2000 OS. It was a USB based device- the fact that played a pivotal role in enhancing the portability and the popularity of the device. Some problems were detected in the first generation model of the iPod shuffle and it was not able to mount on the system at times. These problems were looked into more deeply, and the second generation of the iPod Shuffle was launched in September ‘06 along with the iPod Nano and the iPod video.

The newer model boasted of a smaller clip design, which was more convenient to carry than the longer pen-drive design, anodized aluminum body in four colors, better and improved tech-specs and longer effective battery life. The colors available with the new Shuffle are pink, orange, green and blue. There was one shortcoming that had hampered the success of the initial iPod shuffle- the low memory capacity. This thing was kept in mind and the 2GB version of the second generation of the iPod shuffle was launched on February ‘08.

Visit iPod Reviews – Apple iPod website for exclusvie iPod Shuffle Reviews, Cheapest Prices, Best selling iPod Nano, IPod Classic and Touch MediaPlayers from iPod.

To see a detail review or purchase the product, go to Kindle 2 review. You can also see a comparison of the two most popular electronic book readers: Kindle vs Sony Reader

Apple and Google aim to track users’ phones with GPS and W-Fi trangulation.

Photo: CC/husin.sani

Google’s new service, Latitude, lets people spy on each other, by tracking their target’ GPS receivers. Now Apple is rumored to be adding Wi-Fi triangulation to the Mac OS.

OS X Snow Leopard to get WiFi triangulation, more multitouch control? – SlashGear

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard could introduce WiFi triangulation, used to estimate geographical location, in a crossover of the technology from the iPhone to the MacBook range. The system- which is part of the CoreLocation framework in the iPhone SDK – will presumably be used to give general location information to navigation software such as Google Maps, as the first-generation iPhone did to compensate for its lack of true GPS.

Many could be radioactive:

Radioactive girl. Photo:CC/claude estebe

Improper disposal of industrial equipment and medical scanners containing radioactive materials is letting nuclear waste trickle into scrap smelters, contaminating consumer goods, threatening the $140 billion trade in recycled metal and spurring the United Nations to call for increased screening.

via Bloomberg.com: News.

A tech blogger drools over a booth bimbo, but calls her a “booth babe.” (He mentions the girl three times, and runs the pic you see here.) Have even those horny gadget hounds gone PC? Is babe all that much less condescending than bimbo?

The "babe." Photo: Oh Gizmo

Something has got to be said about a useful product that’s able to convincingly double as a “fashion accessory” on the barely-there outfit of a booth babe. Questionable (but not entirely ineffective or unenjoyable) marketing tactics aside, FlatWire makes some amazing products that make me wish I’d have a few large to drop on a home entertainment system. Like the name sort of implies, these guys make flat wires. But I mean, really, really flat. They gave me a sample of 18 gauge electrical wire, and it’s paper thin.

Out of Second Life, and your (slightly less virtual) world. Image: CC/Gweneth Lange

A former Linden Lab marketing writer doesn’t care for Weblin’s tool for transporting Second Life avatars to the Web:

After a brief trial, I’m giving up on Weblin’s SL avatar-to-Web technology. It’s cool and fun– pictured at right, there’s the backpacking burro Headburro Antfarm stopping by to say hi on this very site– but ultimately, a bit too functionally limited for now. It’s mainly just a chat interface, which sort of defeats the purpose of a Second Life crossover. (Also, Weblin’s avatar templates are limited; a friend complained how she wasn’t able to bring her gorgeous diaphanous wings with her.) My main objection is that I tab browse, and when I do, my Weblin avatar follows me from site to site, even though I’d rather he stay put on New World Notes. Still, there definitely seems to be a demand for a service like this.

via New World Notes: Wanted: Meaningful SL-to-Web Experience Integration.

Weblin’s tool is just the beginning. We can look forward to seamless virtual world-to-Web-to-real life shape shifting down the line.

That’s not how Swann is pitching its camera-pen, of course. But the company does say the new PenCam DVR will be great for making YouTube videos.

If you don’t like having your picture taken on the street, at least Boston’s orb-shaped Big Brother cameras (think John Carpenter’s “They Live”) are easy enough to dodge. Just remember to grab your baseball cap as you head out the door.

But not every spy camera pointed your way is hanging from a light pole. Swann Communications’ new PenCam DVR is going make it harder than ever to keep your personal business personal. It’s a working pen with a hidden camera pointed outward, so you can record while you appear to be writing. It is the latest digital spy gadget to be disguised as something innocuous.

via Smile, that pen may be recording your actions – The Boston Globe.

Authorities ask Londoners to snap litterbugs:

Street litterbugs caught on film

People who drop litter in a London borough are being filmed by a council team and face £80 on-the-spot fines. The BBC reports.

quotemarksright.jpgHackney Council has employed 11 environmental enforcement officers, each who has a mobile phone with a video camera to record offenders.quotesmarksleft.jpg

Fines will also be issued to those who do not clean up after their dogs.

via picturephoning.com: Camphone snapshots nab criminals.