Al Gore, Matt Stone and Trey Parker to speak at TV Festival
Posted by mrplow (5 Comments)	Thu Jul 6th '06 01:24:54 PM
Former US Vice-President Al Gore is to share his experiences of new media with the British TV industry in a speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival. There will also be masterclasses by Sir David Attenborough, Armando Iannucci and the creators of animated series South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Ms Sharman said the team behind South Park would be able to offer "incredible insight" as to how they appeal to young people, a social group she described as "the 'lost' audience that TV really finds challenging". Might be worth going to see Matt and Trey? And maybe you could laugh at Al Gore...
News Source: BBC News	Genre: General News

Edward Tse shows off table monitor (touchscreen)
Posted by play_boy_2000 (11 Comments)	Wed Jun 14th '06 07:04:46 PM
DO YOURSELF a favour and check out Edward Tse's video of Google Earth and Warcraft 3 running on a multi-user tabletop. This, quite literally, is brief glimpse into the future, showing Edward using his fingers to zoom, pan, rotate and tilt Google Earth as well as issuing voice commands to undo and, somewhat bizarrely, fly to Boston. Edward also plays a game of Warcraft 3. He uses his hand to pan across game space and selects units by touching them. The game responds to his voice commands to build barracks and move troops across the land. If that doesn't impress you, watch the next video where Edward and a bunch of his friends scream loudly into microphones. The tabletop reacts by drawing a bunch of colourful triangular shapes. Probably not very practical but a lot of fun anyway. Edward's research into natural interaction over large displays is fascinating. His blog answers a number of interesting questions and provides an insight into his explorations. When the Inq asked Edward about the cost of one of these tabletops, he said that - - - picture source: mitsubishi electronic research labs - they ranged between $9k and 15k, US currency, depending on the hardware. He said that prices had fallen over the past few years and he expects them to fall further. Who knows, maybe in 5-10 years you will be using Google Earth 10 on your own tabletop. View the video here and his blog here (note: it looks like there are 3 vidoes, the second one is a bit odd though) edit: more information on the diamondtouch from mitsubishi electronic research labs (the manufacturer of the table)
News Source: The Inquirer	Genre: Tech

Robot World Cup kicks off
Posted by mrplow (1 Comment)	Wed Jun 14th '06 01:29:01 PM
A football tournament played by teams of robots has kicked off in Germany. The 10th annual RoboCup, being held in Bremen, will see more than 400 teams of robots dribbling, tackling and shooting in an effort to become world champions. Machines compete in 11 leagues including those for humanoid and four-legged robots. The organisers of the tournament hope that in 2050 the winners of the RoboCup will be able to beat the human World Cup champions. Hooray for robot domination of the planet! Luckily we will always have someone who can beat the evil robots: ps loving how we don't have a "sports" news genre, way to pigeon hole us as pure-bred geeks joey!
News Source: BBC News	Genre: Tech

Portugal starts work on world's largest solar power plant
Posted by mrplow (4 Comments)	Sat Jun 10th '06 12:08:58 PM
(picture of plant in Bavaria, Germany) Construction work has begun in southern Portugal on what is set to be the world's largest solar power station. The 58m euro (£40m) plant near Serpa, 200km (125 miles) south of Lisbon, will produce enough electricity for 8,000 homes when it starts next January. The 11-megawatt solar power plant, to be made up of 52,000 photovoltaic modules, will cover a 60-hectare (150-acre) southern-facing hillside. Pretty awesome, but 11MW isn't great, and 150 acres is quite a big space to "waste". Still, nice to see some countries are at least having a go.
News Source: BBC News	Genre: Apple

Newsflash, Apple is indeed evil
Posted by mrplow (3 Comments)	Sat Jun 10th '06 12:02:29 PM
Currently anyone transferring music to portable devices breaks copyright laws. The music industry has traditionally turned a blind eye, however, in favour of targeting "professional" pirates. "We believe that we now need to make a clear and public distinction between copying for your own use and copying for dissemination to third parties," said Mr Jamieson, whose organisation represents the UK's record labels. Mr Jamieson also called for Apple - which makes the popular iPod portable music player - to open up its iTunes software so it is compatible with the technology of other manufacturers. Apple applies a digital protection system to its downloads, which means they are not usually compatible with other companies' devices. He said iTunes' dominant market share in downloads was "not particularly healthy" and said he "would advocate that Apple opts for interoperability". I'm pretty sure we were predicting the shift of Apple from "lovable alternative to those bastards Microsoft" to "just as bad if not worse"... and here it is!
News Source: BBC News	Genre: Apple

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