Showing posts with label Personal Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Technology. Show all posts

Google Wave: What is that?

Posted in Labels: , | at 11:16 AM

Google is at it again. They've come out with another world-changing technology called Google Wave that is catching on quick. So here's what you need to know.


Google Wave is a fast, easy way to communicate with people in real-time. Real-time is a word that gets thrown around these days, but what does it actually mean? It means that if you are writing a message to some one or a group of people using Google Wave, they can see what you are writing as you are writing it! Pretty cool, huh? Just be careful what you write.

Google Wave works kind of like an email. You select who you want to 'wave' with and then you start typing. As you are making a wave, there are many new things you can do such as add a poll, add a map to where you're talking about, and even embed a game that your wave party can play. This brings to light a whole new way of communicating with people. Say you are planning a party, for example. There's so many decisions to be made, like would your guests rather have black or white napkins? Well now, you can simply put up a poll and let the people decide. How democratic of you. Also, for all those people who ask "where's your house again?," now you can give them a map to where they need to go. Bam, no more annoying directionally-challenged guests.

Google has also opened up Wave apps to third parties. This means any developer can make an application for Google Wave! Now, you too can join the app revolution. If any developer is free to make apps, there's no telling how far this technology is going to advance. For example, soon you will be able to conference call through Google Wave using an app called Ribbit.

The only thing that is holding Google Wave back is people can only use it on an invitation basis at the moment. For Google Wave to reach it's full potential, all of your friends, family, co-workers, etc. need to have it and be logged-in often. To communicate in real-time the people you are trying to communicate with have to be using Google Wave when you are communicating with them. Right now, there are not many people who know about Google Wave - much less have an account they use regularly. Once it starts to catch on, this technology has the potential to completely change the way we communicate with each other.

For more information on Google Wave, check out their website by clicking on this link. If you would like an invitation, you can request one here or ask one of your friends who has Google Wave to send you one (each Google Wave user is given 10 invitations).

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How Much Does It Cost to Go to the Moon?

Posted in Labels: , , | at 12:51 AM

Brian, Ruston, and I were asking ourselves "how much would it cost to go to the moon?" Well, I decided to do some research and here's what I found.

Space Tourism has long since been an idea dreamed up by science fiction authors, but in 2001 fiction became reality when multimillionaire Dennis Tito became the first Space Tourist by traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) for a week. Tito was flown to the ISS by an American Agency called Space Adventures on a Russian space craft called the Soyuz. Since Tito, there have been six other people who have paid to travel to the ISS and back. All seven space tourists have flown on the Soyuz and paid $20-35 million. As of 2009, the Russian Space Agency is the only program offering paid flights to space.

In August 2005, Chris Isidore of CNN wrote an article stating that Space Adventures would be offering flights to orbit (not land on) the moon for $100 million. At the time, Space Adventures had identified nearly 1,000 billionaires who were willing to pay the price, but, as of today, no such flights have be executed.


In November 2009, Gene J. Koprowski wrote an article for FOX News stating there are various private sector firms, including a well known company: Virgin Galactic (of Virgin Group Ltd.), who are setting up technologies to offer space tourism at more affordable rates. These flights will take the passengers into orbit to the point of weightlessness for a limited time before returning to earth. At the beginning, the flights are rumored to cost $200,000 with the expectation of price reductions as the flights become more popular and more evolved.

As of today, no one has traveled to the moon as a tourist and there are no future plans - that we know of - to offer such services. For now, a trip to the moon remains science fiction.

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Window 7: WIN or FAIL?

Posted in Labels: , , | at 1:05 PM

Windows 7 is the latest operating system to hit the shelves since Microsoft's Windows Vista, which was widely reviewed as a failure. So how does Windows 7 stack up?


Windows 7 was released about a month ago on October 22, 2009 and within the first three weeks it gained a 4% market share (it took Windows Vista seven months to attain the same goal). Pre-orders on Amazon.com were record highs, surpassing the previous pre-order record holder, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. So, demand alone for Windows 7 was much more impressive than the previous Windows Vista.

Windows 7 is available in 3 versions: Home Premium ($119.99), Professional ($199.99), and Ultimate ($219.99). You can see a comparison of features here. Of course, the Ultimate version comes fully equipped, but most people only need the features available in Home Premium. If you're a student, there's is a major discount available to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium for only $30. The offer expires January 3, 2010, and you can find it here.

The purpose of the upgrade was to excel where Vista failed. Visually, there is not much of a difference, as both use Windows Aero for graphics. For example, the start menu, for the most part, is the same. One feature I really like is the multi-tasking. You can attach icons to the task bar at the bottom of your screen and when an application is in use the icon will be highlighted with a box around it. If multiple windows of the application are open (i.e. multiple browser windows) you can scroll over the icon and a preview of all the windows will be shown. From this preview you can easily view and selected which one you want to use. This feature is very useful when you have many applications up and running and need to find the one you want. There's also a handy search feature in the start menu that will search your whole computer for any file or application. If you can't find what you're looking for, this feature is very handy. And, finally, supposedly,Windows Media player has some additional, cutting-edge features that would appeal manyto PC users...The ability to stream songs played on Windows Media Player onto other devices that are Bluetooth compatible. There are many new features including Themes, Gadgets, and other various customizations. For a full list of features go here.

As for performance, I have found my computer running a little slower. Provided that I do have a three year old computer, but I have had many instances of waiting too long for applications to open and for the computer to log-in as compared to when I was running Windows XP. I would say the times I have had to wait, I was running multiple applications. If you have a computer with more than 1GB of RAM, I expect the wait time would significantly decrease.

I downloaded the 32-bit version, because I was unsure my 1GB of RAM and 80GB of memory could run the 64-bit version. The 32-bit could contribute to the slow reaction times. For those wondering, the RAM (Random Access Memory) is the part of your computer that handles all the information you're processing at the moment. 32 and 64-bit refers to the way your computer and operating system can process different amounts of information. The 64-bit is able to use more RAM effectively - meaning your computer can handle more information and more applications at one time. If you computer can handle the improvement (4GB of RAM is recommended), I would definitely recommend upgrading to the 64-bit.

Overall, I think Windows 7 is an improvement over Vista. It runs very efficiently and is fairly intuitive and easy to use. I upgraded from XP and was not familiar with Vista, but I found everything easy to find and easy to figure out. I would definitely recommend upgrading to Windows 7 if you're still using XP, or, if you're tired of the failures of Vista. I would especially consider upgrading if you're a student. You can't beat the latest operating system for $30.

Windows 7: WIN.

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