Netizen

Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Touch Is Transient

Gesture will go mainstream before we know it.

A Shape-Shifting Smartphone Touch Screen
Leaping Into the Gesture-Control Era

a matchbox-sized device that adds intuitive gesture control to any computer ..... The technology, which is also being adapted for mobile devices, could even leave the beloved pocket touch screen looking outmoded. .... The black glass on the Leap’s upper side hides two small cameras and a handful of infrared LEDs, which track the motion of a person’s fingers to an accuracy of a hundredth of a millimeter .... Leap provides the solution to “gorilla arm,” a term used to describe the dubious ergonomics of a person repeatedly lifting his or her hands from the keyboard or mouse and reaching out to operate a computer’s touch screen. Users of Leap’s device can lift their hands just slightly off the keyboard and make more economic gestures with their fingers. .... significantly faster than using a mouse and keyboard .... Holz says touch screens soared in popularity because they are more intuitive to use than keyboards and mice, but believes they are limited in a way the Leap is not. “The fact is that you can’t really do anything with a tablet, with tap and swipe, but it feels natural,” he says, meaning that people love touch screens but can’t easily create content using them. “We have that same natural experience but we have more power.” ..... since the [developer’s kit] is still in the preview stage, more features are being added that make capturing specific motions even easier. ..... over the longer term, the Leap will be used for very complex interactions. “You’ll be reaching into a 3-D world and grabbing hold of and moving things.” .... a chunk of simulated clay. He reached out and pushed and pulled with his fingers in the air in front of the monitor, creating a stylized human head in about a minute. ...... gestures can help remove a barrier between people and their technology ..... Leap Motion’s closest competitor may be Kinect, Microsoft’s body-tracking sensor for the Xbox games console

Monday, December 03, 2012

Erich Schmidt Has A Book

As soon as I read the headline I found myself thinking about the Bill Gates book that came out in 1995.

So it was eery when the last paragraph in the article said pretty much the same thing.

As it is described, "The New Digital Age" calls to mind Bill Gates' 1995 book "The Road Ahead," which made a similar effort to predict the changes that would be wrought by the personal computing revolution. But predictions can be tough: In 2010, a review by The Atlantic found that Gates had gotten things mostly wrong.

It is hard to predict the future in any meaningful detail.

Eric Schmidt's book on the future to be released April 23

Sunday, December 02, 2012

Looking For A Few Holiday Parties

I think I am looking for a few Holiday parties to go to. This picture below is from one of those.

Charlie O'Donnell At His Inspiring Best
Tips From Gandhi
Happy Holidays

Saturday, December 01, 2012

Thursday, November 29, 2012

A Beautiful Truck

The rest of the Internet is too slow for Google Fiber

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Marissa Mayer Is Doing It

I was willing to give Marissa Mayer three years before passing judgment. But only after three months I think she has made it ample clear that she will turn around Yahoo. She already has.

This is mind boggling. This defies all economic theories. This beats China at its peak. And he has been doing it through agriculture, primarily.

Bihar beats Gujarat, Maharashtra with 21.9% growth in 11th Plan

only Sikkim and Goa, which are much smaller in size than Bihar, have performed better than the state. .... 21.9 per cent during the 11th Plan spread over 2007 to 12. ... Sikkim recorded highest GSDP growth rate of 31.6 per cent ..... The worst performers include Jharkhand which recorded GSDP growth rate of 9.2 per cent .... During the 11th Plan, Gujarat grew at 16 per cent followed by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh at 15.3 per cent each.

Slumdog Millionaire: A Movie About My People

I was born in Bihar.

Tiny Houses Are Amazing

Check this out. 20K for a house. It is not just the price tag, I find myself liking the economy of the space.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Inconvenient Search

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

It's interesting to see Google compete with itself.

How Google Plans to Find the UnGoogleable

The company wants to improve its mobile search services by automatically delivering information you wouldn’t think to search for online. .... relatively small pieces of information that I’d never turn to Google for. For example, how long the line currently is in a local grocery store. Some offline activities, such as reading a novel, or cooking a meal, generated questions that I hadn’t turned to Google to answer—mainly due to the inconvenience of having to grab a computer or phone in order to sift through results. ..... mobile devices made it possible for Google to discover unmet needs for information ..... the perfect search engine will provide you with exactly what you need to know at exactly the right moment, potentially without you having to ask for it ....... Google Now offers unsolicited directions, weather forecasts, flight updates ...... the pinnacle of this hands-free experience, an entirely new class of device ....... "In the future you might want to search very new information from the physical environment ..... Your information needs are very localized to that place and event and moment.” ....... Google Now already combines location data with real-time feeds, for example, from U.S. public transit authorities, allowing a user to walk up to a bus stop and pull out his phone to find arrival times already provided. ..... a search engine for mobile devices dubbed Gander, which communicates directly with local sensors. A pilot being installed on the University of Texas campus will, starting early next year, allow students to find out wait times at different cafés and restaurants, or find the nearest person working on the same assignment