FlashLadyBug.com

“Flat screens for computers? They will soon be passe if the vision of Queen’s University computing professor Roel Vertegaal takes off outside the lab.

The Ontario school’s Human Media Laboratory is cooking up futuristic
computer screens on Coke cans that can receive RSS feeds and videos (as
seen above) and even on paper (as seen below) that blow away some of the other PC form factor improvements on the market or in the works”

Read more about this technology, and take a look at some photos showing what could be here
http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/28371

“Polaroid recently announced it will launch its PoGo portable photo printer later on this summer. First seen
at CES 2008, the printer, whose name is short for Polaroid-on-the-go
according to Polaroid, achieves its compact 4.7- by 2.8- by 0.9-inch
size by not requiring any ink cartridges. Instead, it uses Zero Ink technology and ZINK Photo Paper as its medium.”

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/06/06/polaroid.pogo.printer/

The printer (Shown above) can spit out a 2×3 color photo in under one minute. The “ZINK” paper gets its color from clear cyan, yellow, and magenta dyes that are activated and turn color by heat (applied inside the printer), which causes the ink to change color. The printers will be available @ Target on July 20, for $149 each. Paper is 10 sheets/ $4, or 30 sheets / $10.

I think its about time we finally saw a new innovation in digital photo printing. I mean, we’ve seen some neat things come around with digital photography, like the ability to email photos, and do our own touch-up and cropping, etc., etc. But nothings really changed in the past year or two. I mean, this new printer isn’t revolutionary. Theres a few odd things about it, like the fact that it does 2×3 prints, and not 4×6, which is pretty much the standard these days. (The small print size may be due to the small size of the printer – 4.7 x 2.8 inches, by only .9 inches thick.) I’d love to see one, and see what the print quality is. It would be neat if you could get pre-done sticker paper, or something like that, so that you could directly print and stick your photos anywhere.

Regardless of what the quality may or may not be, or the price of the paper (33 cents a print isn’t bad, especially realizing theres no hidden ink costs), its nice to finally see a truly portable photo printer.

Check out the Zink website here
http://www.zink.com/

In case you haven’t noticed, Google has changed its favicon, the little box that shows up to the left of the address bar in Firefox and Safari (and somewhere in IE too, but I haven’t used it in so long, I forget where. . . . .).

For many people, this was quite a surprise, simply because Google isn’t in the habit of changing the design or layout of their pages or logos. They just don’t. Okay, so its just the little icon next to the adress bar. Its not that important in the grand scheme of things. So why the change?

From the official Google Blog :

“Posted by Marissa Mayer, VP Search Products & User Experience, and Micheal Lopez, Web Designer

You
may have noticed that Google has a new favicon, the small icon you see
in your browser next to the URL or in your bookmarks list. Some people
have wondered why we changed our favicon — after all, we hadn’t in 8.5
years(!). The reason is that we wanted to develop a set of icons that
would scale better to some new platforms like the iPhone and other
mobile devices. So the new favicon is one of those, but we’ve also
developed a group of logo-based icons that all hang together as a
unified set. Here’s the full set:”

And there it is. What I find really interesting is this block of favicons that didn’t make the cut, or were just ideas that were tried out. It’s no surprise to me how simple the final favicon is; Simple is quite often better, especially with such a small graphic.

Images and quote from the Official Google Blog,
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/one-fish-two-fish-red-fish-blue-fish.html

UPDATE : In some random browsing, I noticed that the Google “G” with the blue background is a lot like the Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/) favicon,

.

It was similar enough to make me wonder for a second why the page I was looking at was connected to Google. . . . Maybe Googles new favicon needs some more work after all? I also have to say that I wondered why the Google “g” was done in such a funny lower case font – compare it to the Guardian “g” and its backwards.

What I wonder is how favicons will be used in the future. I mean, on a iPhone screen, I’d think that favicons might soon be integrated in new bookmarks, so that you just look for the favicon instead of reading the text. I’m not sure what you’d do if a page didn’t have a favicon, or how you’d store them on the mobile device, but its a thought.

And now, if you’re still curious, here the Favicon for FLB (the little logo on the left before HTTP:// ) :

Its the small version of our homepage logo,

This little robot searches for things to drum on, drives up to them, and starts playing.

John LsSieur had trouble finding good software and computer programs for his autistic grandson, Zac. Using a computer (and the internet) was just too fustrating. Zach threw the mouse in fustration. So John built a custom interface. And its free to use or download – for anyone who wants it.

“The Zac Browser greatly simplifies the experience of using a computer.
It seals off most Web sites from view, to block violent, sexual or
otherwise adult-themed material. Instead it presents a hand-picked
slate of choices from free, public Web sites, with an emphasis on
educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images, like
a virtual aquarium. . .

. . .the Zac Browser disables extraneous keyboard buttons like “Print
Screen” and turns off the right button on the mouse. That eliminates
commands most children don’t need anyway, and it reduces the chance an
autistic child will lose confidence after making a counterproductive
click.Children using the Zac Browser select activities by
clicking on bigger-than-normal icons, like a soccer ball for games and
a stack of books for “stories.”"

Read the Boston Globe article here
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/03/grandfather
_builds_web_browser_for_autistic_boy/?page=1

Get the Zac Browser here
http://www.zacbrowser.com/

“The Windows version of Safari has a bug that’s been dubbed the “carpet
bombing” flaw. It would allow a Web site to place an infinite number of
shortcuts on a user’s desktop — the default download location in the
Windows version — effectively covering the screen with links to
potentially harmful Web sites or code. The same flaw exists in the Mac
version, except that the default download location in the Mac OS is the
user’s downloads folder.”

(http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2008/05/ah_the_irony_
microsoft_says_safari_isnt_safe_1.html)

Security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani, who found this flaw, contacted Apple about it, and got this reply :

“…the ability to have a preference to “Ask me before downloading
anything” is a good suggestion. We can file that as an enhancement
request for the Safari team. Please note that we are not treating this
as a security issue, but a further measure to raise the bar against
unwanted downloads. This will require a review with the Human Interface
team. We want to set your expectations that this could take quite a
while, if it ever gets incorporated.”

(http://www.dhanjani.com/archives/2008/05/safari_carpet_bomb.html)

So, apparently, Apple doesn’t feel that this could be harmful in any way.
What would you think if Safari let your desktop look like this, and get covered in spam, viruses, and other junk?
(Image from Dhanjani)

“Now, Microsoft has issued a security alert
regarding the flaw, calling it a “blended threat.” Microsoft isn’t
supplying technical details about just how the threat works, but does
provide some basics:

What causes this threat?
A
combination of the default download location in Safari and how the
Windows desktop handles executables creates a blended threat in which
files may be downloaded to a user’s machine without prompting, allowing
them to be executed. Safari is available as a stand-alone install or
through the Apple Software Update application.

What might an attacker use this function to do?
An
attacker could trick users into visiting a specially crafted Web site
that could download content to a user’s machine and execute the content
locally using the same permissions as the logged-on user. “

(http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2008/05/ah_the_irony_
microsoft_says_safari_isnt_safe_1.html)

You know how NASA sometimes takes their stereo images of Mars and creates 3d anaglyphs from them? Well I have this software that lets you do this easily and so I decided to make some using the latest images from the Phoenix. Here are the two higher quality ones, and there are a few more that you can check out in this gallery.

You can find the original pictures here. (At this point they have actually posted one 3d image on their website)

Ever wanted to sync your Google Calendar with Outlook or Ical?
How about a desire to separate your business from your personal calendar events?

Take a look at this fast instructional article from PCWorld on 26 ways to get the most from Google Calendar.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,145844-page,2-c,webservices/article.html

Straight from the Electronic Frontier Foundations website :

“On April 21st, the Ninth Circuit held in United States v. Arnold
that the Fourth Amendment does not require government agents to have
reasonable suspicion before searching laptops or other digital devices
at the border, including international airports.”

This is very bad. If you know someone who’s got a laptop, then you know that theres a lot of personal stuff on it. There can be family photos, emails, notes, personal finance data, and other things that you just don’t want other people seeing. You don’t let other people read your diary, so why should you let other people read the contents of your laptop? (The ruling doesn’t apply just to laptops by the way – its ANY electronic devices, so it could include your cell phone, the photos on it of you and your friends who may or may not have drunk too much last week, the business calendar of meetings on your PDA, etc.)

Other then an invasion of privacy, I don’t see any need or benenfit to allowing border agents to search laptops. This isn’t the 1800s where to get sensitive information into the US, it had to be carried in paper form, contained inside a locked box. There’s email, websites, downloads, and loads of other ways to get data over the border. Searching laptops should not be allowed without reasonable suspicion.

Read more about it here
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=356

On a less serious note, if I have a logon that requires a password, and I don’t give you that password, does that count as copy protection for my laptop, therefore meaning that if border agents try and get around my password (without me giving it to them – they can’t search my brain without reasonable cause) they are guilty of violating the DCMA?
(Read #1 here)
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=356