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

So, Firefox 3 is coming closer to release and so are all the pros and cons of an update to firefox. Theres always the problem that alot of extensions that you have come to depend on go pop, and many developers do not continually update their plugins.
For FF3, quite a few improvements are slated. A new Bookmark system is being implemented, its become more of a searchable tool and lets you filter bookmarks.
A very useful tool, Whole-page zooming is also being developed. We all know what happens when you jack up the text size, it becomes huge, layout dies, images stay tiny. Well…whole page zooming will solve that I wonder how well this will work with multimedia, but we shall see.
Major performance fixes are in place, so hopefully it won’t start sucking ram and cpu. I know I can’t wait for this, as I check my ram usage and see that FF is using an enormous 1.3 gigs of ram (I blame too many tabs)
It’s also changed the address bar so that what you type there searches your history, be it in the page, the title, the url, its pretty nice when you can’t remember the url of a page you’ve visited in the past.

All in all, some very good features and fixes for FF3, I just hope my beloved extensions don’t all bite the dust

“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.

This one has been making the rounds on a few blogs, and it IS pretty cool.

“On May 19, 2005, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this
stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars.
This Panoramic Camera mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of
the rover’s 489th Martian day, or sol.

Sunset and twilight
images are occasionally acquired by the science team to determine how
high into the atmosphere the Martian dust extends, and to look for dust
or ice clouds. Other images have shown that the twilight glow remains
visible, but increasingly fainter, for up to two hours before sunrise
or after sunset. The long Martian twilight (compared to Earth’s) is
caused by sunlight scattered around to the night side of the planet by
abundant high altitude dust. Similar long twilights or extra-colorful
sunrises and sunsets sometimes occur on Earth when tiny dust grains
that are erupted from powerful volcanoes scatter light high in the
atmosphere.”

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell”
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_347.html

“According to a study by Australian consumer group Choice, video game
consoles such as Sony Playstation 3 consumes five times more energy
than a medium sized refrigerator.

They found out that a medium sized refrigerator of about 12 cu. ft.
volume (60 inches in height) will cost $50 a year while Sony
Playstation 3 will cost $250 a year even if it is not in use and only
turned on.”

“…Incredibly, the Playstation 3 consumed over ten times as much power as the Nintendo Wii.”

(http://www.intology.com/computers-internet/playstation-3-consumes-more-power-than-a-medium-sized-fridge/)

People always say that being “green” costs too much money. Green, or energy-efficient (whatever you want to call it) products sometimes do cost a little bit more upfront. But the cost of an appliance, game console, etc., isn’t just the cost to purchase the unit. It’s the cost to run it as long as you own it. You don’t buy a car and NOT consider how much you’ll spend on gas for it. You must make the same considerations with video game consoles and other electronics. At least, remember this : If you leave it on, you’re paying for the power to run it.

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)

So, I know theres been quite a few lists of demotivation posters, and I just want to contribute some that I have found to be especially funny or striking. A lot of these came from sites that made flash slideshows, and so here, I provide the actual image file in case you people want to keep a set on your own harddrive
Check it out: Flashladybug Demotivation Poster Collection