Live Texturing of Augmented Reality Characters from Colored Drawings

I think this is amazing. Love the potential implications of such tech.

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Real-Time Projection Mapped Facial Effects

OMOTE / REAL-TIME FACE TRACKING & PROJECTION MAPPING. from something wonderful on Vimeo.

PROJECT MEMBERS

NOBUMICHI ASAI (PLANNER / PRODUCER / TECHNICAL PRODUCER - P.I.C.S.)
HIROTO KUWAHARA (ART DIRECTOR & MAKEUP)
PAUL LACROIX (TECHNICAL DIRECTOR / PROGRAMMER - TRANSIT DIGITAL WORKS)
JIN HASEGAWA (CG DESIGNER - SPADE)
TAKASHI ISHIBASHI (CG DESIGNER - SPADE)
AYAKA MOTOYOSHI (PRODUCTION MANAGER - P.I.C.S.)

SPECIAL THANKS

AYA KUMAKURA (PRODUCTION MANAGER)
YOSHIHIRO UENO (PRODUCTION MANAGER - P.I.C.S.)
KOJI KOJIMA(PRODUCER)
KAZUHIRO NAKAMURA (COLORIST - McRAY)
KENJI NAKAZONO (PHOTOGRAPHER - CREATIVE STUDIO WORKS)
KIMIHIRO MORIKAWA (PHOTOGRAPHER - SHOOTING & LIGHTING)
JIN HASEGAWA(SPADE)
RHEA TOR’S INC.
DAN (STYLIST)
K.FURUMOTO (HAIR - &´S MANAGEMENT)
YUKA SEKIMIZU (MODEL - SATORU JAPAN)
HIDEAKI TAKAHASHI(MUSIC - mjuc)

CONTACT
NOBUMICHIASAI.COM

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The Future of Simulation

Posting material on Tuesdays have been difficult for me. Perhaps it's because I've pigeonholed myself to a Tech category. A category that's best represented by other sites on a more regular basis. That said, today I wanted to bring you the following video in hopes of taking a step towards remedying my Tuesday shortcomings. Enjoy.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAFhkdGtHck

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NeverWet: A Superhydrophobic Spray

This may appear as magic, but it's not; it's science. Ross Technology Corp (RTC) is a company that specializes in steel products, which needed a better way to reduce corrosion. This is where necessity was indeed the mother of invention.

This necessity lead RTC Engineers to identifying a need for "a coating to keep liquid away from steel. What they ended up with is a silicon-based spray that not only kept steel dry, it could also be applied to many different surfaces and materials" yielding the same results.

The rest, as they say, is history.

"When we started getting it to work, we realized it solved a lot of problems rather than just corrosion," said Andy Jones, who leads the new effort.

Jones is the President of Ross Nanotechnology, the subsidiary of Ross Technology Corp. that was formed to develop NeverWet.

In addition to fighting corrosion, NeverWet's nano-particle coating keeps things clean, dry and free of bacteria and ice.

Jones said that once they found a coating that worked on metal, they created different formulations that adhere better to other surfaces, including clothing, plastics and cookware.

The cookware formulation also was tweaked so it can better handle high temperatures.

"Anywhere you don't want corrosion, or ice or things to get wet, this works well," Jones said.

"When you start thinking about it, there are a lot of places where that's good."

Jones quickly mentioned a number of additional possibilities: NeverWet could make ovens, toilet plungers and bed pans a cinch to clean, packaging resist water and white boards free of "ghost" images, he said.

Another application is safeguarding electronics —"I sprayed my iPhone with NeverWet, submerged it in a foot of water for 30 minutes, took it out and it was good to go," Jones said.

Now all of this may sound crazy, but I ask you hold off on that judgment until after you watch this video.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7is6r6zXFDc

What do you think? Can you think of applications for this product? Sound them off in the comments below.  ▣
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Google Tablet - GPad?

Reposted with permission from TechnologyNomad.com

Most of us have seen the prototype Motorola tablet with the Honeycomb version of Android (3.0?) that Google's Andy Rubin showed earlier this month (available without ads via Youtube after the jump/below) --Now Motorola has put out there a teaser video (also after the jump/below) of the tablet at CES next month. The Youtube teaser video documents the evolution of tablets since the B.C. era. It takes some cheap shots at both the ultimate competition and the friendly competition.

Personally, I'm surprised that HTC wasn't the one to come out to market with the 1st Google tablet. Nothing against Motorola, but HTC Android phones are a lot sleeker in hardware and software. Consequently, I expect the same in a tablet. Which may mean that I wait it out a tad longer than next month's CES announcement --For the price drop, the kinks to be worked out and for HTC's version.

Still, the hardware specs seem in par with what I would expect a Google tablet (GPad?) to be. One can only hope the rest is inline with such performance. Unfortunately, I was not able to glean a USB port or a camera in the device. Did anyone else?

Here's the original showing of it:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koIzhLaRJJo

Here's the CES teaser:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quI2I8wLPdc

UPDATE (via Engadget): Acer's Android tablet (and its gyroscope) previewed on video here.  ▣

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Beware of Electronic Pickpocketing

Reposted with permission from TechnologyNomad.com

Normally we praise technology and all it can do. In this case, however, we show how technology can be used against us. Or so I thought when I learned about this.

The focal point of this very disturbing news report video (after the jump) is RFID. But like Bluetooth and other technologies that have proceeded it, it comes down to how the technology was implemented. In this case, the manner in which it was implemented was a little too personal.

The below video is eye-opening. Knowing about such technologies and how to guard one's self is key. Personally, I don't want RFID credit cards. And if it was up to me, I'd reject a passport with such a feature as well. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJbtMclbatU

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Google-Specific Greasemonkey Scripts

It's been a while since I wrote about one of my favorite Firefox extensions: Greasemonkey. In today's article, I wanted to show how the scripts run via Greasemonkey could enhance one of the sites that most us visit & use on a daily basis: Google!

Multi-Column Google Search Results

This can be incredibly useful on wider monitors. It's configurable to 1, 2 or 3 columns.

Google FX

A plethora of options of improvements for Google like Autopager, Sidebars, MultiLanguage Suggest, ThumbShots, Image Preview, Toolbars, Filters & much more - Fully Customizable - includes 8 Theme Colors with Iconization.

Google Book Downloader

Download any book from books.google.com. I must admit, I've not used this one, but it sounds intriguing.

Google Secure Pro

I love this one. Although I have some extensions that cover some of this, none cover this many. Basically, it forces Google products to use (https) secure connection . Also compatible with Opera 9+. Supported: Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Reader, History, Bookmarks, Groups, Knol, Notebook, Webmasters, Voice, Contacts.

Google Enhanced Black

This Black Google script enhances all Google service pages with an inverted color-scheme for reduced eye fatigue; it also removes ads & clutter and improves page layout and readability by widening search results.

There are others out there, and MakeUseOf captures some of them in two articles I hope you enjoy as much as I did:
9 Greasemonkey Scripts For More Productive Google Search
5 Useful Greasemonkey Scripts To Enhance Google Calendar

With the so many Greasemonkey scripts out there, I'm sure there are a few that I don't know about. Should you come across any, please don't hesitate to share them with us in the comments.  ▣
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Google Magazines

Taken with permission from TechnologyNomad.com

Google Books, a digitized library of print materials, has quite a few magazines available in addition to all their other high quality offerings. I remember reading that publishers can choose whether they provide free access to back issues via Google Book Search, or use it to draw traffic to pay-to-view archives, so we assume the same goes for magazines. That said, all of the searches we tried led to free-access page images.

Although there hasn’t been a whole lot of publicity on this, Google books began adding full text magazines. They have digitized at least 100 magazines from cover to cover, showing us the ads, pictures and articles. In addition to the historic aspect, they are really interesting and fun to look through. By digitizing every page, it is almost like going to the Periodicals stacks on the second floor of a library and flipping through them right there on the shelves.

Amongst their digitized work are back issues of many (mostly popular) magazines. Specifically, in September, 2009 Google announced the availability of over 1,860 issues of the iconic LIFE Magazine on Google Books. Every issue of Life Magazine from its debut in November, 1936 to the end of 1972 is available via Google Books. You can browse the cover of each issue and search the text of articles.

As of recent, the entire archives (137 years) of Popular Science is also now accessible, searchable, and free via the PopSci web site.

A few days ago, I learned that Google's magazine archive has expanded with 40 years of digitized content available from IDG Publishing (Free).

With the project, readers can now access issues of CIO, CSO, InfoWorld and Network World dating back to the 1970s. The pages of the publications—including advertisements—have been scanned and digitized, and are available in a searchable archive on Google Books. Additionally, some microfilm issues of Computerworld have been posted and are available on the Google News Archive. “The real value of this project to IDG is in having the content of our enterprise IT publications—going back decades—preserved for all time and accessible to researchers and historians around the world,” Matt Smith, senior VP-COO of IDG Enterprise, said in a statement.

Here's the media release from IDG.

Another popular magazine out on Google Books is SPIN Magazine. "Flippin'" through it is sure to get a giggle or two at what was once considered cool from the 1980s. The contemporary cultural and political articles – as well as exciting fashions featured in the ads of decades gone are now available for perusal from any web browser. You can also browse through archives of New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Weekly World News, Jet, and even Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Years available will vary, but this is a wonderful resource for those looking for 20th century popular culture, and well worth a quick search or an extended browse. Don't forget to check out the LIFE Photo Archive while you're at it!

Ancestry announced in January, 2010 that the magazine would be discontinued, so how great it is now to have access to all the issues they’ve done! This is a great model for any other publishers/organizations that may be discontinuing.

Use the "Magazine" link on the Google Books home page to get to this material. Here's a page on Google Books that lets you browse the available magazine titles. You can also use the Advanced Interface and limit to only magazines and/or publisher.

As Google's official blog adequately puts it "In many cases, these magazines aren't just history as history, but history as perspective — a way of understanding today." If print ever dies, at least there should be a digital copy of all of this history on Google.  ▣

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Must-Have Firefox Extensions & Add-Ons

Provided by TechnologyNomad.com

If you're a Firefox user, then you already know that one of the things that make this open-source browser so popular is its extensibility --the big galaxy of useful extensions you can use with it. I for one, have a couple of add-ons/extensions/plug-ins that I simply cannot continue online without. I'll even go out on a limb and say that Firefox's extensibility is the reason the browser has become my very desktop. But what are those browser extensions that turn Firefox from a regular browser to a down-right necessity?

Let's think of this in a different manner. When you buy a new computer, or you land a new job or whatever it is that presents you with the opportunity to start fresh, what are the first things you do?

You see for me, the first thing I do is jump on the native browser that came with the machine and go download Firefox. And I won't go into what other applications I download and/or seek; but for Firefox itself, I immediately start looking for the following core extensions:

It's worth noting that I'm using "extensions" to include add-ons, plug-ins and extensions (of course).

Like all extensions & add-ons, if you don't like one you can always uninstall it; which's much cleaner & simpler than uninstalling a full-blown application.

Greasemonkey

God, I can spend all day on this alone.

The Greasemonkey add-on allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages. Basically, as Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.

These scripts do not actually change the web site itself, but it changes the way Firefox interacts with the HTML on a web page to make it act in a way that is more user-friendly and/or befitting of one's needs. This change only occurs in your Firefox browser and only for the current session. It does not change any coding on the server side or to the web site itself. It simply changes how Firefox reads the code on the page and redisplays it to you with the aesthetic and functionality based on the directions/code of the script(s) you have installed. Every time you visit the web site, the script changes the page for you without you noticing it. There is no delay in the changes visible to the naked eye, usually. Some scripts allow you to auto-fill forms. You can even automatically retrieve data from other sites to make two sites act as one ... very mashups-like.

Greasemonkey allows you to stipulate what pages (and sub pages/directories) to run the script of your choice on. And the reverse is also true. Greasemonkey allows you to exclude certain sites/pages as well.

By itself, Greasemonkey does none of these things. In fact, after you install it, you won't notice any change(s) at all, until you start installing what are called "user scripts."

The "Swiss Army Knife" of Firefox extensions may seem like it requires a bit of ramp-up to get going, but it does not. You simply install those "user scripts" without as much as restarting your browser. There are literally thousands already written for you. To install these "user scripts," first you must install the Greasemonkey Firefox extension. Then head out to Userscripts.org and search for a web site or page you'd like to see optimized and in what manner and you're sure to find something.

Like I said, I could write about Greasemonkey alone. The fact is, there are definitely some "user scripts" that I seek out and install under Greasemonkey; but this is not the time or the place for that. I will tell you that you can find some for most popular sites. There are some that modify how Google presents search results, others that modify YouTube, some that add functionality to StumbleUpon, enhance Flickr, etc. What Greasemonkey scripts are amongst the must-haves is truly a personal thing.

Xmarks

Formerly known as Foxmarks, Xmarks syncs all your bookmarks (and bookmarklets of course) across all computers. As a fan and advocate of cloud computing (with some personally-put restrictions), Xmarks simply puts all your bookmarks & bookmarklets into the cloud so you can access them from any other computer connected to the internet. In addition to online backup, Xmarks is available for Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE) and Safari; so if you add a bookmark in one browser, it will automatically become available in your other browsers as well.

Xmarks has many other features that go beyond the scope of this specific post. One worth mentioning, however, is that Xmarks offers profiles allowing you to display certain bookmarks at certain locations (you may not want certain bookmarks, for example, to automatically be shown and/or available at work). For me, this is an absolute must, since bookmarklets I have created cannot become property of the company I work for; or disputed at any point to be so. Should you leave a workplace for which you had a profile location, you simply disable that location in your profile and they're gone once you sync up.

DownThemAll

Ever wanted to download all the articles, images (only GIFs, only JPGs, or both) on a web site but wish that you could grab them all at one time? DownThemAll does just that. DownThemAll is a selective, powerful download manager. It makes short work of snatching all the images on a page (including those links to the "bigger" or "zoom" versions), all the MP3s off a music or podcast blog, or any other kind of filter you can set up.

The only way to elaborate any more on this wonderful add-on is to build a small walk-through of it; which again steers away from the intention here. So ... I encourage you to try it out yourself and go from there. I'm confident you'll like it.

Better Gmail 2

It's no surprise that Gmail has become the web-mail of choice for many of us. However, there are some nuances that many have expressed; including the inability to use folders (as oppose to Gmail's labels). Better Gmail 2 addresses that and many others.

Better Gmail 2 is sure to impress you with what it offers. Amongst its lesser known features is the gem of hiding labels on the message rows. Only on mouse-over do you see the label that the message was tagged with.

Download Statusbar

Once you start downloading any thing, you're sure going to seek a much better tool than the one native to Firefox. When you are dealing with multiple downloads, it’s easy to get confused and lose track of your files. Sure, there are lots of download managers out there, but sometimes you want something that’s so discreet you barely even notice it. Is there a tool that will do the job?

Download Statusbar is a Firefox add-on that is very low-key. In fact, when you are not downloading, it is invisible, and when active, it is very, very discreet. Download Statusbar completely integrates Firefox's standard release, so there is nothing to configure before you start to use it. When you download a file, a very small download indicator (the statusbar) will appear at the bottom of your screen. From here you can control the download, pausing and re-starting in one click, running the file once it downloads, copying the URL and visiting the source website.

The Download Statusbar display makes it very easy to see what files you are downloading and how close to completion they are. If you open the add-on’s configuration options, you’ll find that the display and download are completely customizable. There are also a series of hints available on the Download Statusbar website that make your downloading even quicker. Simply put, it is effective, low-maintenance and very simple, and if you are a frequent downloader, it’s a must-have extension.

This, of course, serves a different purpose than DownThemAll (mentioned above), which allows you to download (automatically) several files at once. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I use & highly recommend both, and for different reasons.

Others

Most other extensions, plug-ins and add-ons are usually added later as you come across them. What I mean is that when you visit YouTube you'll quickly learn that you need to install the Flash plug-in; and if you visit an audio site that serves RealAudio files, you'll need to install that plug-in. And so on and so forth.

Without a doubt, there are other Firefox add-ons that I have installed; but they are specific to my needs. For example, I like having a tab-centric application (like Tab Mix Plus), an easier copy (as in copy & paste) solution like AutoCopy, and a few others. There are extensions that cater specifically to Developers, ones that cater to bloggers, and ones that cater specifically to laptop users ... to which I highly recommend FireFound and Meebo. The web-based instant messaging (IM) site offers an extension that especially goes well with portable (run off of a USB drive or something similar) versions of Firefox. Again, I'm sure there are many other extensions out there, but these are the ones I rush to add when I have a fresh copy of Firefox.

As a Firefox user what extensions/add-ons are the ones you rush to add when you have a fresh copy of Firefox? Share those with us in the comments.  ▣

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Your Online World After Your Death

Re-published with permission from TechnologyNomad.com

In today's online World thinking about what happens to one's online accounts, which to many is a big chunk of their World, after their death might be morbid. Perhaps even a tad superstitious and pessimistic. Unfortunately, it's a necessary evil.

Now I wanted to write about the topic, but after doing a bit of research (as I always do for an article) revealed that blog site MakeUseOf covered it, and covered it quite well. According to the article, email services like Hotmail and Gmail allow next of kin to access accounts of deceased individuals as long as the family can provide proof of death. My guess is that anonymous accounts, where incomplete or incorrect information is provided, mean that the accounts get locked over time due to lack of usage. Whereas other services, like MySpace, will simply delete the account upon request. The infamous Facebook will also delete an account if asked, but they also go out of their way and turn the user's page into a memorial one, if the family so wishes. I highly recommend reading the MakeUseOf article as it covers quite a bit.

Chrome Natively Supports Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey is a Mozilla Firefox add-on that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages. Basically, as Greasemonkey scripts are persistent, the changes made to the web pages are executed every time the page is opened, making them effectively permanent for the user running the script.

The original Greasemonkey developer and Google employee Aaron Boodman announced yesterday that Chrome version 4 and later will support at least 80% of the Greasemonkey scripts out there natively. That is, without any additional tweaking necessary; unlike many of the hacks that existed up until now.

This now gives those who contemplate switching to Google's Chrome a serious re-consider. For me personally, not having Greasemonkey alone was the reason behind my lack of interest in Chrome. Potentially, this now makes available 40,000 plus scripts. Although I've not tried it, I'm under the impression that each of the userscripts one would install is treated like an extension in and of itself.

Have you made the switch to Google's Chrome? If not, will the availability of Greasemonkey scripts lure you in now? Let us know in the comments.  ▣

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HTML5: Bridging the Gap Between the Desktop and the Web

I'm running a day behind in writing this week's articles, but I'm still very excited about several topics to put on display before you every week (on Tip Tuesday). This week I intended on writing about something other than HTML5. However, Google made a move that more or less forced my hand on the topic; so to speak.

Let's start with what HTML5 is.
Lifehacker answers the question with:

HTML5 is a specification for how the web's core language, HTML, should be formatted and utilized to deliver text, images, multimedia, web apps, search forms, and anything else you see in your browser. In some ways, it's mostly a core set of standards that only web developers really need to know. In other ways, it's a major revision to how the web is put together. Not every web site will use it, but those that do will have better support across modern desktop and mobile browsers (that is, everything except Internet Explorer).

While about.com answers it with:

HTML was developed by the W3C until 2004, when members of the HTML working group grew disturbed with the direction the W3C was going with HTML. They felt that the W3C was not paying enough attention to the real-world development needs of the language and focusing too much on XML and XHTML. So they formed a new group called WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) devoted to evolving the Web. They started by working on a new specification of HTML - HTML 5.

HTML 5 is a new version of HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 focusing on the needs of Web application developers as well as evolving HTML and addressing issues found in the current specifications.

So what's so fancy about HTML5?
Going into details of the changes would probably exceed both the time and the patience of the average curious user. Instead, I will focus on some of the major changes, and how that will make our online experience better. Ben Galbraith, co-director of developer tools at Mozilla, is in agreement and stated:

HTML 5 features like Canvas, local storage, and Web Workers let us do more in the browser than ever before.

Here are some of changes that are taking place in a more relevant form:

• Offline Storage: The easiest way to think of offline storage as something a lot like Google Gears -—you just won't need to install a plug-in to use it. Modern browsers are starting to implement the offline storage feature of HTML5. Not surprisingly, the current model of text-based key & value storage is expected to grow into a universal structured data storage as the standard matures. This would greatly expand the usefulness of web applications, and could render many desktop applications (with time) obsolete.
• Drag & Drop: Simply put, this could put an end to the "browse" button to upload a file (like one does when submitting their resume online or uploading a profile picture of themselves). This HTML5 feature will allow the dragging files (mp3 files, documents, etc.) from the browser to one's own local storage (USB drive, Dropbox folder, etc.). Knowing that the Google Chrome OS (not the browser) is already in the works, the drag and drop feature of HTML5 simply bring a browser-based OS much closer to reality. The definitions around drag & drop are unclear, and will likely require JavaScript to work. Nonetheless, its uses are abundant and evident.
• Canvas: Simply put, you can programatically (is that a word?) render pictures, charts, graphs, games and whatever else your imagination allows that previously were practical only with third party add ons such as Flash and Silverlight. Having <canvas> as an encapsulated part of HTML gives Web Designers/Artists a freedom, no longer confined to images and boxes, allowing them to use the entire page as an expression of content and design rich interfaces to their hearts' content.
• Audtio & Video: The audio & video APIs are massive upgrades in media embedding. Although support is limited right now, something like video embedding has never been easier. Imagine YouTube no longer needing Flash to play videos. Instead, it's inherent within the page. Well, that's exactly what was announced, albeit in beta, a week or so ago.

There's much more to HTML 5 like Geolocation, Web Workers, Smarter Forms, and many others. HTML 5's web application focus is evident in such game-changing tools (although not yet) like Google's Wave. Whether it's structural in with HTML 5's API, reading further on the many beneficial changes is sure to help those technical and not.

Here are a few reading resources:

• Offline Web Applications
• Offline Application Caching
• Steve Smith on Structural Tags in HTML5
• Lachlan Hunt’s Preview of HTML5
• Elliot Harold on New Elements in HTML5
• Bruce Lawson’s HTML5 Form Demo
• HTML5 Cheat Sheet A handy printable HTML 5 Cheat Sheet that lists all currently supported tags, their descriptions, their attributes and their support in HTML 4. Released Smashing Magazine.

If you're running an up-to-date version of Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera—or, basically, any regularly updated browser besides Internet Explorer—give these links a shot:

• HTML5 Demos: Huge list of capability demonstrations, gracefully compiled by Remy Sharp.
• Welcome to Safari: Written entirely with HTML5 and CSS 3.
• YouTube in HTML5: No Flash required at all (for Chrome and Safari only, at this point).
• Canvas drawing and audioNeat interactive site that shows tweets from folks who are digging on HTML5, with streaming background audio and interactive data pieces.

And here are a couple of videos illustrating HTML 5 and what it can do:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4FbF8GKChk

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tLBLVtIk3A

You Can Use HTML 5 Right Now.
I say that because HTML 5 has been a working draft for a couple of years and has undergone many revisions --The first draft of HTML 5 appeared on January 22, 2008, and it has been under revision ever since. HTML 5 is mapping our way into the future, but its final draft is not complete yet. One school of thought puts it W3C Candidate Recommendation stage around 2012, some even later. But the important thing to note is that the standard will be, and is being, implemented in stages. Safari, Internet Explorer 8, and Firefox 3.5 have some of the standard already implemented, with more being planned in future releases. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is resisting some of HTML 5's APIs (like <canvas> ... imagine what it would do to Silverlight).

Per smashingmagazine.com:

To effectively use HTML5 right now, we need to be able to control the environment in which it is used. Since support is not as widespread as we’d like it doesn’t make real sense for it to be heavily used unless, of course, we can lock down the usage to certain platforms which have HTML5 support. With Webkit leading the way for HTML5, we can safely focus on devices powered by Webkit.

The 3 hottest mobile devices right now: The Palm Pre, iPhone 3Gs and the new Google Android phone all have browsers that are based off the Webkit rendering engine.

Safari is even leading the way on the mobile HTML5 front; The iPhone (with the latest software upgrade) is the only device I could get to properly render the

Right now, you can confidently use many of the HTML5 features in iPhone Web app development and mostly likely expect Pre and Android to follow in suit.

This all now brings us to why Google forced my hand in writing about HTML 5. As I'm sure you know, Google Voice was rejected on the iPhone and created a major ripple this last summer (2009) to the point where the FCC was forced to interve. Well, given how Apple's Safari browser on the iPhone in particular is excelling in using HTML5 Google Voice Does An End Run Around Apple And Shows Up In The iPhone’s Browser. Genius! In the words of Borat "high five."  ▣

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Technology and Education: TED Talks for Teachers

I've only mentioned TED, ever so briefly, when I wrote the inspirational Monday article The Winds of Change. In brief, TED is a small nonprofit devoted to ideas worth spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. TED's scope is now much broader providing talks and performances for free (almost 500 TEDTalks are now available, with more added regularly). If you've not experienced TED, I urge you to do so. Don't take my word for it, read what others have said.

As you may know, I like to collect free alternatives to commercial software. Along the same lines, I at one point started collecting information on what free education is available out there from reputable schools like Berkley, Stanford, MIT, etc. As part of the ongoing search and collection of free education, I've come to like and follow Free Technology for Teachers. On one of their posts, the site featured 10 TED Talks for Teachers I thought were worth repeating & mentioning as a way to show how technology can serve education beyond student curriculum; and specifically for the teachers themselves. Here's the exact article from that post:

"
TED Talks provide viewers with insightful and thought-provoking commentary and ideas. The contents of many TED Talks can be directly or indirectly applied to your classroom practices. While you're on holiday break, you may want to watch one or all of these TED Talks. If you're interested in learning more about using TED Talks in your classroom, check out Teaching With TED.

TED Talks directly about education.
1. John Wooden on Winning vs. Success.
What strikes me most about Coach Wooden's talk is his emphasis on teaching and developing character over winning. One of his three most important rules, "no criticizing of teammates, I'm paid to do that," is a great rule that translates well to the classroom and the workplace.

2. Clifford Stoll Teaches Physics to Eighth Graders.
Clifford Stoll has done many cool things in his life including catching a KGB spy, but the coolest thing he's done is teaching college level physics to 8th graders. What I like about Clifford Stoll is that instead of just talking about ways to teach and improve education he is actually getting on the front line and trying his ideas. (Stoll has definitely done enough things and made enough money to sit back and be a "consultant" but instead he's actually teaching, something I have tremendous respect for). In this talk he gave at TED in February 2006 Stoll talks about and demonstrates measuring the speed of sound with an 8th grade class. Stoll also makes a very profound, but somewhat obvious, statement about the future. He says, "if you want to know what the future generation will be like, ask a Kindergarten teacher."

3. Don't Eat the Marshmallow
In this TED Talk given by Joachim de Posada talks about the behavior of children when they are given a marshmallow and told not to eat it for fifteen minutes. In the talk Joachim de Posada reveals that the response of children to this challenge can be indicative of future success in life. In addition to being informative and thought-provoking, the talk includes some really cute video clips. The information shared in the talk confirms what most of us know about the impulse control of small children. None-the-less, it's nice to have a reminder that can inform our planning of day's lessons.

4. Bill Gates Talks About Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Education.
In this interesting TED Talk (they're all interesting) Bill Gates discusses mosquitoes, malaria, and education. The education part of his talk (the last eight minutes) presents some interesting fodder for conversation.While you may not agree with everything that Gates proposes in this talk, it will definitely make you think about what does and doesn't work in education.

5. David Merrill Introduces Siftables
Siftables are the high-tech version of the alphabet and number blocks we all played with as children. Siftables are little computer blocks or digital blocks that contain motion sensors, neighbor detection sensors, digital displays, and wireless communications. The blocks can be manipulated to create words, equations, pictures, and designs. Siftables are not yet commercially available nor do I have any idea what they would cost, but there is a ton of potential for Siftables as an educational resource. Siftables would be great for young students just learning to spell and do arthimetic. Siftables could also be great for older students to develop and try solutions to mathematics problems.

Update: Sir Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity.
I don't know how I forgot this one, but thanks to a comment left by Dolores Gende I was reminded that I should have included this talk. In fact, it probably should be first on the list.

TED Talks with implications for education
6. Tom Wujec - 3 Ways the Brain Creates Meaning.
In this short talk Tom Wujec explains how the brain interprets words, images, feelings, and connections. As an educator I always take interest in research and discussion about how the brain absorbs and processes information. Knowing how the brain processes information should influence how we present information to our audience(s).

7. Jimmy Wales - The Birth of Wikipedia.
Do a Google search for just about any academic term and more times than not Wikipedia is at the top of the results. So how did Wikipedia get started? How does it continue to run? Watch this talk by the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, to find out.

8. Julian Treasure - 4 Ways Sound Affects Us.
In this talk Julian Treasure tells us that people working in open plan offices are 66% less productive than those in quiet rooms. Treasure follows that up by saying if you are in a noisy open plan room, wear headphones and listen to soothing sounds and your productivity goes back up. The ideas and information in the video are good to remember the next time you have students working independently in a large classroom. Perhaps instead of trying to keep them as quiet as possible, we should allow kids to use their mp3 players when they're working on independent assignments.

9. How Cell Phones, Twitter, and Facebook Can Make History.
In this talk Clay Shirky examines how text messaging and social networks empower citizens to report the news without state-run media censorship. This TED Talk could be good for getting students to think about the positive things that they can accomplish using the technologies that they often think of as just fun tools.

10. Matthew White Gives the Euphonium a New Voice.
If you're a music teacher, this two minute performance might be something you'd like to share with your students to encourage them to develop their improvisation skills.

Update: Lead Like the Great Conductors.
Again, this is one that was brought to my attention by Dolores Gende. This talk has great lessons for school administrators.

Bonus: David Pogue on the Music Wars
In this video David Pogue performs a catchy medley about the changes in the way today's consumers access music and television. Pay particular attention to the middle section of song where David mentions how younger consumers watch two minute shows instead of traditional television shows. Watch and enjoy the video it will put you in a good mood for at least five minutes and you might learn something about shifts in media consumption too.

Update #2: More reader suggestions
Pranav Mistry - The Thrilling Potential of Sixth Sense Technology.
Benjamin Zander - On Music and Passion
Dan Pink - The Surprising Science of Motivation
"

As a person who relies on technology for my everyday life, and a geek at heart and by profession, it should come as no surprise that I'm a huge proponent of technology in education. Having technology for children, in the classroom, without a doubt, has its pros and cons. But in order for technology to be effective in today's education system, it needs to be intelligently integrated into a rich, meaning-centered curriculum. You can read more about technology in the classroom (with many excellent resources and references) here.

Having technology, however, as a tool for students, teachers, educators and professionals alike has without a doubt been of great benefit. I can only hope that we see more of how technology, in the form of online videos, podcasts, etc. (like the ones from TED) become part of how we advance as a society for one, and as of humanity as a whole.

It's worth mentioning that TED has (I believe) all their TEDTalks on YouTube (it makes embedding on Facebook and other social networks a lot easier). What do you think of TED?  ▣

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Shrinking Long URLs with Bit.ly and J.mp

The URL shortener space is getting increasingly crowded, with a ton of new and existing companies bringing their offerings to the table. A few come to mind like: is.gd, tr.im, cli.gs and TinyURL. Although not yet for public consumption, Google has even launched its own service called Goo.gl. Google's launch comes on the heels of Facebook having quietly launched its own URL-shortening service called FB.me. Heading there in your browser simply takes you to Facebook's home page, whereas sharing links through Facebook's mobile site will shorten them for you using a shortened FB.me URL. Surprisingly, I've not seen much from Facebook about their new service.

As usual, I digree.

The one service I've failed to mention, and the one that I use the most ... the focus of today's article is bit.ly. Actually, I use the bit.ly powered j.mp, which's two characters shorter. J.mp ("jump") is in fact bit.ly but with a shorter domain name. You can learn more about it here. And in a World where every character counts (especially on the likes of Twitter), j.mp with the power of bit.ly is the best all around URL-shortener (IMHO, of course).

Although I use bit.ly's j.mp domain, I will be referring to the parent company, bit.ly, from here on.

Besides the basic functionality of shortening URLs, it also provide feature for URL analysis. You can track number of clicks, locations, referrers, time of clicks for any bit.ly URL without having to register, login or install any software. Bit.ly also offers customizable URLs, tracking, 301 redirection and a mobile version among many other features.

Bit.ly is trying to stay ahead of the competition with products like bitly.tv (more on that in a few) and bit.ly Pro, which currently allows a limited set of beta users to create their own branded short URLs. In essence, white-labeling the URL shortening service.

Bitly.tv displays a collage of the most-linked videos (through bit.ly) of the moment. Users can also sort by the top videos from the last day or the last two days. The site looks really slick and is well presented. When you click on a video, a light-box pops out, which plays the video as well as displays a variety of sharing options (Facebook, Twitter, e-mail) and shows a live stream of tweets about that piece of content. The live stream is especially compelling since you can see what other people are saying about the video as you formulate your own opinion.

In addition to powering Twitter (replacing TinyURL), bit.ly is baking into its Web service the Yfrog picture-sharing service made by Imageshack. Yfrog competes with other Twitter-friendly image-sharing services such as Twitpic. Imageshack is what power all of ahmadism.com's image hosting needs for free. For users who want to create easy short links to images they upload from their computers, the integration with Yfrong will be a bit of a time-saver. Also, users will get the real-time click through data from their images on the bit.ly site.

Bit.ly also announced on its blog that Google Reader and Typepad now generate bit.ly links natively.

I'm sure I've only revealed a few of bit.ly's offerings. For example, I know that bit.ly provides a very neat API. If you’re as API driven and like to automate the tasks around you, you’ll be happy to know that there is a new open data table that can shorten URL’s using YQL.

But let's go back to the stats feature for a minute. Did you know that if you put a + (plus) sign at the end of any bit.ly URL, it immediately goes to the info page for that link, displaying all those juicy stats, as opposed to the link itself? For example, for url "http://bit.ly/8ifP7w", open url "http://bit.ly/8ifP7w+", this will redirect to "http://bit.ly/info/8ifP7w" and show all the statistics for this shortened url.

With all this talk about shrinking long URLs, and being a cynic & a skeptic, made me want to see where some of these shortened URLs go before I click on them. Enter a bookmarklet. If you know me, you shouldn't be surprised at the introduction of a bookmarklet.

Get Long URLs

Simply drag the "Get Long URLs" link above to your browser toolbar. Alternatively to dragging and dropping, you could right-click the link and click "Bookmark This Link" in Firefox (my browser of choice), or "Add to Favorites..." in IE. Of course, IE will present you with some blocks to running them, which's why most serious-net-browsers do not use IE.

Short URLs generated by URL shortening services say little about the landing site but this bookmarklet can rewrite all short links on a web page so you know exactly where those links are pointing to. Once bookmarked (in your bookmarks), and you're on a page that that has a shortened URL (like a Twitter page, an email, etc.), click on the bookmarklet and it will convert all those shortened URLs back to their source giving you visibility to the destination.

Do you use a URL shortener? Which one? Tell us in the comments.
ahmadism.com is not affiliated in any way with bit.ly or any other URL shortener. This article was written solely out of experience with the various tools.  ▣

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Home Security with Webcams

I've toyed with the idea of making my computer (one of them) act as a hub for some security cameras. So I took to the web and read up on the topic. It came as no surprise that most material out there talked about how best to secure your home by closing/locking all windows/doors, using contact sensors, etc. At the bottom of those suggestions were options for those who can afford setting up cameras, systems and such.

In this day and age, however, most laptops (which outsold desktops last year - 2008) come with built-in webcams (web cameras), offer webcams free as part of a bundle, etc. Some of us have at least one webcam laying around the house. A year or so ago, I was able to get a very good deal on a couple of nice ones (two separate models purchased separately).

Although the reasons may be obvious, let's first take a look at why one would want to have a security/surveillance system in place. Without spending too much time on this point, here are some of the reasons:

• Monitoring of buildings or offices after hours for security.
• As a video surveillance recorder in businesses to prevent theft, vandalism, burglaries, etc.
• Used in conjunction with a security alarm, you can analyze and play back security footage to determine if a security call out is warranted.
• Simple, yet effective video security system for your home.
• As a pet surveillance system. Find out what they are up to when you're not around.
• Nanny watch.
• Kid watch --The Kids get in from school at 4pm. You don't get home till 6pm. They are old enough to look after themselves but you still want to keep an eye on things.
• Front door/Driveway watch.
• Watch for (and with some camera set ups, talk back) deliveries.
• etc.

The applications are many. But in addition to the cost of hardware and the actual set up (wiring, placement, etc.), there's also the cost of the software ... the system itself, if you will. That's the heart of today's article.

Beyond your computer and the webcam(s), you should not need any additional electronics. No need for a DVR, a dedicated system, "security" cameras, CCTV, etc. As for the software, well, many are free. And with some creativity, you may not be able to get 100% of what you want, but you'll come awfully close. Let's keep in mind that some of the many capabilities many seek & expect must exist in the cameras themselves.

What I personally am after is a setup where I could simply point the camera in a direction, and with motion detection, it snaps photos and/or video, and uploads them somewhere. That way, should the computer itself be taken, I have access to those snapshots. For me personally, I'd like some flexibility with the location of the upload. In other words, I wouldn't want to rely on the same company of the software to "host" that media for me. Instead, I would like an ubiquitous option like FTP, email and even social media sites like Twitter, Picasa or Flickr. The latter, Flickr, would make for an excellent choice as long as the account is not public and I don't hit that 100mb limit that comes with the free Flickr plan.

So before I talk about the software options, it's worth noting that there are two categories: Software applications; which are programs you install on your machine ... And, Webapps (Web applications); which run via your browser.

Although most (especially high-end) webcams come with their own software applications, the ones I will be reviewing are generic and should work with any webcam. Webapps, on the other hand, can sometimes be less capable than software applications, but on the plus side there's nothing to install. And in many cases, you can use the same service with a single account on, and from, several machines. Some of the ones I will review can also support multiple cameras at once, which is handy for covering more than one location, angle, room, house, store, etc. at a time.

I'm only reviewing software solutions that offer a free version (no trials); and I'm only reviewing a hand-full. I'm sure there are others out there that I don't know about; therefore, I welcome your feedback in the comments on any that deserve mention.

Let's get started, shall we? Coincidentally, both webcams I have are Logitech. One is the QuickCam® Pro 9000 for Business, and the other is the QuickCam® Deluxe for Notebooks.

Software Applications

Yawcam
This windows-only application has many options, which may come across as complex; instead, there's just plenty to chose from. After spending a little time in the Yawcam settings you can set automatic FTP uploading, emailing, or just saving captured images to your hard drive. You can even set a schedule for when Yawcam is enabled to capture images so your webcam isn't constantly snapping pictures while you're sitting in its path. The free java-based application even has a stealth mode.

The app does an exceptional job at letting you pick various ways you want to be notified. In addition to the ones I mentioned above, it can also play any sound on your computer, or start another program (such as a lock-down or keyboard locking application).

Here're some of the features Yawcam list on their website:
.: Video streaming
.: Image snapshots
.: Built-in webserver
.: Motion detection
.: Ftp-upload
.: Text and image overlays
.: Password protection
.: Online announcements for communities
.: Scheduler for online time
.: Multi languages

Here's a good step-by-step on how to setup your webcam with Yawcam (although you don't really need one): Skatter Tech.

I must say (without any vested interest), out of all the ones I mention today Yawcam is the one I like the most and is the software application I run at home.

EyeSpyFx
This Windows and Mac application did not come across as intuitive; although, in all fairness, I did not get a chance to install it and play with it. I was distracted & confused by their web site too much to try it. Still, it's been around for a few years, works on both platforms and deserves the mention.

Their mobile video surveillance software, called EyeSpyFX Webcam, allows you to create your own webcam monitoring service.

This webcam viewing software works by broadcasting a live webcam page displaying the images captured by any webcam you have connected to your local network. Once you download and install the software package to your local PC, you can use any standard web camera to capture and broadcast live images. Live images can be accessed either through a standard PC with internet connection, or web enabled cell phone. When accessed through a cell phone, the broadcast web page will automatically optimize to suit your specific mobile phone.

The EyeSpyFX Webcam software comes with many unique features and benefits. These include:

• Remote camera control -- If you have a web camera that has pan/tilt/zoom functionality, you can use EyeSpyFX Webcam to manage these controls remotely. In addition, you can also use your cell phone to take remote snapshots as well.
• Privacy protection -- EyeSpyFX Webcam provides extra security and privacy protection controls to ensure an unauthorized user cannot gain access to your web cameras or video feeds.
• Simple to use -- This software package is designed to be simple and easy to use. Once you download the software, it can be installed in a matter of seconds and will work with any ISP regardless of bandwidth connection speed. It will also function regardless of whether the broadcasting computer utilizes a dynamic or fixed IP address. The software is also designed to work with all standard web cameras and with any GPRS/GSM color picture phone.

Other Windows-only software applications that warrant mention and looking into include AbelCam, Yoics and HomeCamera.

Webapps

Orb
I've mentioned Orb in the past, as it is one of the best ways to listen to your own collection of music without the need to carry it with you. And you can listen to it all from any where and on pretty much any internet-enabled device. The same application can serve up your webcam ... live! Orb, however, is a software application that installs & runs on your machine, which acts as a server, allowing you access to what it streams over the web. While it's a likely fit in the software application, its interface and ease-of-use (albeit unfairly) put it in the webapp category. Think of it as a hybrid.

This solution, however, doesn't offer snapshots, archiving, publishing, hosting, etc. It's more of a "I want to see what my camera sees." So what made this an option? Well, when used with something like Yawcam, it's the best package you get even from many of the high-end solutions.

OrsonEye

OrsonEye is free software that lets you use a small, cheap, and easy network camera to automatically upload images to Flickr.

Although I've not tried it, I get the impression that it runs directly on standard Axis webcams (no need to leave computer on) , simple to set up (no port forwards on your router); but I'm not sure on how. I have a feeling you must install something first.

Ugolog
This is a really easy Web-based security tool that displays live footage and an archive of snapshots from your Webcam. It works with any camera that's attached to your computer or a remote camera with an IP address.

While there is no way to receive alerts via e-mail, the service provides alerts via an RSS feed for every camera you have set up. Using a service like Pingie (an SMS alert service for RSS feeds), would let you get an SMS alert every time a new photo shows up.

UStream.tv/Justin.tv
Both UStream.tv and Justin.tv are set up to let anyone create a live broadcast free of charge. There's also a way to make the stream password-protected, meaning only you and those you've given the code to will be able to see it.

You could use this free service to broadcast your band's concert, your high school's football game, your company's training session or just about anything else. More importantly, you now could use for all your security needs. All you need is an account, a video camera (either a webcam or a camcorder that has webcam capabilities) and a broadband Internet connection. You can schedule events, send out invites and archive broadcasts for later viewing.

Hardware

You could go high-tech with a webcam robot like the Rovio™ or the amazing Spykee™. The latter received higher reviews; not surprising since the build-it-yourself robot can move, watch, hear, speak and monitor using any computer and an internet connection. The Spykee takes pictures and records videos. It lets you make free calls over the Internet with the VoIP phone function. It's also an mp3 reader allowing you to listen to your own mp3 music. The monitoring and video surveillance detects movement and sends you a picture of the intruder by email.

As for webcams that are more robust than my Logitechs, and ones that have more oomph and features, I recommend the Sharx Security VIPcella-IR (here on Amazon) and the Panasonic BL-C131 (here on Amazon). I won't bore you with the specs, details or the $200+ price tags, but I urge you to check them out (no, I don't get any commission or advertising or anything). These are simply the cameras on my wish list.

Whether you use your existing webcam, go with a more advanced/robust one, select a software app or a webapp, your choices are sure to payoff. The rest is about creativity in placement & implementation, and a little elbow grease. Having free software options, however, is sure to help make it easier.  ▣

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Google Music Search (aka OneBox)

Google updated the music search OneBox, which used to include song titles, album names and some other information licensed from AllMusic. Google Music Search (aka Onebox) is a music search feature that appears inside Google search that will give you not a little 30-second clip, but a full song play.

Search for an artist, an album name or even some lyrics and Google returns a list of songs that can be played with one click. Full music previews are provided by iLike and Lala, but Google also links to other music sites: Pandora, Rhapsody and imeem. When you click on a music result, Google opens a player in a pop-up window, which isn't very user-friendly.

"With Lala, you can hear one full length preview per song. Each subsequent play will be a 0:30 clip," explains Lala. This limitation is very easy to bypass: just clear the cookies for lala.com.

Basically, as you can see in the picture above, you will see play buttons alongside different songs when you get search results. If you press play, a popup from MySpace (iLike) or Lala appears, letting you play the full song and giving you buttons to buy it or get more info. You will also have the chance to check out the band on other services/sites as I've mentioned above.

As you might imagine, there's no mention of iTunes in all of this. This (the lack of iTunes-mention), however, does make me wonder about Apple and whether or not they plan to use the server farm they're building to make their own search engine --Ultimately, this would mean that Google will not be the default search engine for their Safari browser. It can only get more interesting.

Back to what I was saying ...

In essence, Google isn't playing the music at all. It's up to MySpace and Lala to manage the rights of the full-song playback business, and to serve up the content. For more info, check out the YouTube video (below) or Google blog.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV24RBmy-2I

Around the same time this came out a month or so ago (October 2009), and not wanting to feel left out, Yahoo! reminds users that it launched a similar feature last year. "Since launching a partnership with Rhapsody in September 2008 and launching the FoxyPlayer last year, music has been an integral part of the Yahoo! Search experience as well. We have found that nearly 6 percent of all Yahoo! searches are music-related."

Here's the thing ...
(you'll shortly get an idea why I put this waaay at the bottom of this post)

I've been searching music on Google for a few years. And I've been able to "listen" to the results without a hitch. If you've followed this blog at all, it should come as no surprise that I use a bookmarklet. I don't want to give it all away, to be honest, but I'm more than happy to share it for a limited number of people. Let me know in the comments and I'll send you the bookmarklet.

So what does this bookmarklet do? It searches Google (and no other) for music based on a string you provide it (usually the name of the artist or the song ... not the lyrics). I simply manipulate the Google page (the search page and the results page) into something that caters to music. The results are mp3 & ogg files that I can "listen" to right there and then. And no, there are no third-party applications, other links (hidden or otherwise), etc. It's simply a Google search with some serious URL manipulation to customize the search and the results. Yes, it's that simple.

Heck, with FoxyTunes, a free browser plug-in I have on Firefox, it automatically adds the play button next to the results of the bookmarklet. Can I find all the music I want with this bookmarklet? Honestly, no. It's limited by what ... ummm ... I've said too much. Just know that you'll find more than 90% of what you're seeking. And again, if I send you the bookmarklet, you'll have its code to see exactly what it does. You'll even be able to modify it to do other things (hint!).  ▣

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5 Useful Bookmarklets

It's been a while since I wrote about my favorite web "technology" ... bookmarklets. Despite the huge collection I have, I'm constantly coming across some awesome-written bookmarklets. I've also had the opportunity to write a couple for personal use (to help with blogging, etc.), and I wanted to share 5 useful everyday bookmarklets.

To learn more about bookmarklets and what they are, I invite you to read this past post. To summarize, a bookmarklet is a a term that may have originated as a result of the merge between "bookmark" and "applet." Browser-independent, bookmarklets add functionality to any web browser. Consisting primarily of JavaScript code, bookmarklets can be stored in the bookmark/favorite bar of any browser and used from there to perform useful tasks affecting (in most cases) the current page.

In short, bookmarklets allow you to temporarily modify the current page to do something you need. Once you refresh the page, or revisit it, it will be back to the way the web page designer intended it. For a more permanent solution, using the very same JavaScript solutions you find or write, you basically need that JavaScript to run on the specified page all the time ... automatically --And that's exactly what Greasemonkey is and does.

With services like Xmarks, which give you access to your bookmarks from practically any where there's an internet connection, bookmarklets are an excellent cross-browser way of performing some tasks without the need for toolbars (which can be a security risk). Here are 5 bookmarklets, which I'm hoping you find useful:

1. Linkify

My mother sends me all kinds of emails, which are usually links she's come across or forwards from other people. I guess Yahoo! Mail doesn't automatically convert links into ... well ... links. Instead, it keeps them as non-clickable text. That's where Linkify comes in. When I click on the bookmarklet while I've got her email up on the page, it makes what was once a non-clickable link into one that is.

Linkify

Simply drag the "Linkify" link above to your browser toolbar. Alternatively to dragging and dropping, you could right-click the link and click "Bookmark This Link" in Firefox (my browser of choice), or "Add to Favorites..." in IE. Of course, IE will present you with some blocks to running them, which's why most serious-net-browsers do not use IE.

2. List All Links

Sometimes it's handy to list all the links on a page. I use it on pages where music is listed, but don't want to fiddle with all the nonsense. I also use it to test pages and ensure that all the links work instead of scrolling or finding out if an image is a link or not. You get the idea.

List All Links

Like the "Linkify" bookmarklet above, drag the "List All Links" link above to your browser toolbar.

3. Edit Current Website

This bookmarklet turns the current page into a lite WYSIWYG, and helps me with productivity/blogging, but can also be for fun. Imagine changing the headlines at a major newspaper website with your own words, taking a screen shot, etc. Its best use, however, comes with altering text on the fly allowing for easier copy & paste.

Edit Current Page/Website

4. Favelet Suite

The Favelet Suite bookmarklet is the Swiss Army knife of the web design bookmarklet world. It includes the following features:

• Color List
• Document Tree Chart
• HTML Attribute Viewer
• HTTP Header Viewer
• Hidden Field Modifier
• Javascript Object Tree
• MODIv2
• Mouseover DOM Inspector
• Object Dimensions
• Page Info
• Remove Children
• Resize Fonts
• Ruler
• Show Source
• Style Sheet Tweak
• Style Sheet Viewer

Favelet Suite

5. Linearize

Reformats a page so that the entire contents is in a single column. It's great when you want to copy a lot of text from a page. I use it to more easily grab text from long articles with complex layouts, which you can dump into a text-to-speech reader when your eyes are tired (geeky, right?). (originally by Jesse Ruderman)

Linearize

EXTRA

Here's an extra tip, which builds on the same principle as bookmarklets but is not really one. Still, you may find this simple tip handy if you always have a web browser running on your desktop screen in maximized mode, which most of us do.

There are instances when you need to access program shortcuts and files placed on the desktop.

Now instead of minimizing the browser to access these files, you can simply create a shortcut in the bookmarks toolbar of your browser that points to the desktop folder. Click this bookmark and you’ll be able to browse through desktop content within the browser.

To create a bookmark pointing to the desktop, open this address file:///c:/Users/ (probably easier to copy & paste it instead) inside a new tab in your browser (Firefox?). Click your user name and then drag-n-drop the "desktop" folder to your bookmarks toolbar. I do this with my Desktop and with my My Dropbox folders.
  ▣

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The Mosquito Ringtone

I remembered reading about this a couple of years ago when I was describing it to a couple of people who have not heard or knew about it at all. But I couldn't remember what the name / reference of this "teenagers-only could hear" audio. So I started to look it up, and wanted to write about this technological ingenuity, its history, etc.

This technology was marketed back in 2005 as an ultrasonic teenager repellent, an ear-splitting 17-kilohertz (17.4KHz, to be exact) buzzer designed, by British inventor Howard Stapleton with Welsh security company Compound Security Systems, to help shopkeepers disperse young people loitering in front of their stores while leaving adults unaffected. Basically, the idea was meant to drive away teens through ultra high frequency sounds much like how a dog whistle would affect dogs.

“The Mosquito”, as the product was named, took advantage of a curious medical fact that most people are unaware of. The principle behind it is a biological reality that hearing experts refer to as presbycusis (a more accurate source here), or aging ear.

While most human communication takes place in a frequency range between 200 and 8,000 hertz (a hertz being the scientific unit of frequency equal to one cycle per second), most adults' ability to hear frequencies higher than that begins to deteriorate in early middle age.

"It's the most common sensory abnormality in the world," said Dr. Rick A. Friedman, an ear surgeon and research scientist at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles.

But in a bit of techno-jujitsu, someone — a person unknown at this time, but probably not someone with presbycusis — realized that the Mosquito, which uses this common adult abnormality to adults' advantage, could be turned against them.

As with any inventive good idea, sooner or later someone is going to use it for something other then the original intended purpose. In this case, some equally inventive teens in the inventor’s hometown (Birmingham) caught on to what the company was doing and decided to put turn the idea into something they could use. They took the ultra sonic frequency and converted into to a cell phone ringtone which they aptly named “Teen Buzz”. As such, the “adult proof” ringtone known as the mosquito ringtone was born. The ringtone immediately caught on like wildfire in the UK, and has since quickly spread throughout the reaches of the Internet to teens everywhere. Teens learned they could hear each others phones ringing at school but their teachers couldn’t. The ringtone goes by many different names including Teen Buzz, Mozzy Tone, Mosquito Ringtone, Ultra Sonic Ringtone, and others. It has been used in several TV series here in the United States as well as in this (below) very clever KFC TV Commercial.

In April of 2007, KFC Featured the Mosquito Ringtone in a type of viral interactive commercial. They were giving away (1000) $10 gift cards to the first thousand people that could correctly state at what point in the commercial the ultra sonic sound was played. I don’t know if it is part of the YouTube conversion process, but it’s pretty obvious where the sound is played.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMWqIeb7b6g

"Our high-frequency buzzer was copied. It is not exactly what we developed, but it's a pretty good imitation," said Simon Morris, marketing director for Compound Security Systems, the company behind the Mosquito. "You've got to give the kids credit for ingenuity."

Since then, Mr. Morris said his company has received so much attention — none of it profit-making because the ring tone was in effect pirated — that he and his partner, Howard Stapleton, the inventor, decided to start selling a ring tone of their own. It is called Mosquitotone, and it is now advertised as "the authentic Mosquito ring tone."

To many, this whole notion of a group of people being able to hear something while another older one cannot is all hard to believe. But I assure you it's real. Here's a video that demonstrates this:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrewnzQYrPI

This ring tone comes in different KHz. Some are designed to not be heard by those above 50, or those above 40, or those above 30 and so on and so forth, give or take a few years. Its applications may go beyond teenagers and their cellphones at school. Can you think of an application or two? Share them with us in the comments.  ▣

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