Stealth Pennycam isn’t stealth anymore now that it’s out…
Click Here to View in Full Screen Mode
Stealth Pennycam is pretty amazing in that it can capture video but it isn’t stealth anymore if we know about it… Well, I guess it can work for petty thieves who don’t use the internet anyways.
The PennyCam is concealed within a Take-A-Penny, Leave-A-Penny tray, and connects to a DVR using a standard BNC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNC cable, which can be run underneath the counter. The USD$199 unit is powered by a 12vdc adapter, and delivers 500×582 pixel images with its 1/3” Sony CCD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCD Image Sensor.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Linux starting to take over the world with Mini-notebooks and netbooks!
Recently, I’ve been noticing that more and more laptop manufacturers are putting Linux on their mini-notebooks inluding the Eec PCs.
Continue reading ‘Linux starting to take over the world with Mini-notebooks and netbooks!’
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Sony Accelerating Production of Larger OLED TVs
Sony is accelerating their production of larger OLED TVs.
Why?
OLED TVs are obviously better than traditional TVs due to their lower power while high output, meaning brighter, better pictures. There’s also Samsung, who is working on their own OLED TVs.
The question will remain which big TV manufacturer will win the race. The competition might be all too good for consumers and we should expect to be able to buy a 102″ OLED TV for around $2000 in the next couple years.
According to a Sony report straight from its Japan headquarters, its young OLED TV-display production unit will be funded with a $210-million investment in larger screens (over 16-inches at least) and will ramp-up by the end of 2008. This will put it in place for a full-line release of TVs in late 2009 or early 2010. Sony was the first manufacturer to launch a legitimate (if very expensive) OLED TV option, the XEL-1, late last year.
Quick Tips: What is an OLED? (via WIkipedia)
A significant benefit of OLED displays over traditional liquid crystal displays (LCDs) is that OLEDs do not require a backlight to function. Thus they draw far less power and, when powered from a battery, can operate longer on the same charge. Because there is no need to distribute the backlight, an OLED display can also be much thinner than an LCD panel. OLED-based display devices also can be more effectively manufactured than LCDs and plasma displays.
Here’s a video of a Sony OLED TV from CES 2008:
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...GooHack Searches of the Day - Goo
Well, to promote our new hack search engine, GooHack, we will be doing “GooHack searches of the Day” daily and try to find some interesting new hacks for all you hacker readers.
So to start out, I did a Goo Hack search on the term “Goo” and found some interesting stuff:
How to make glow stick goo - Lol… I really need this guy next time I am at a rave.
The future of Goo - Yey, goo is officially awesome and being continually improved by companies.
How to make Nasa-grade Space Goo - Don’t you just love Goo?
What is Goo exactly?
Goo is a term for a slimy, shapeless mass. - according to Wikipedia
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...What is Soju and How Does it Affect an Entrecard (Ab)user’s Life
Here’s what Alex from Net-Entrepreneur posted about SiteHoppin:
Soju is a distilled beverage native to Korea and traditionally made from rice. Soju is clear in color and typically varies in alcohol content from about 20% to about 45% alcohol by volume, with 20% being most common. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soju)
Max Lee, a very drunk, Korean-American guy from California has developed a “stumble” service that helps Entrecard users drop-till-they drop, with a press of a button. Browser within browser technology used for this service rids the user (you) of the need to install toolbars of any kind.
It is now possible, for the addicted Entrecardist, to save a considerable amount of time dropping the daily maximum number of cards. It is available at www.sitehoppin.com. Just set the tag to Entrecard and hop away.
I admit trying this for a couple of times myself, when it was really, really late to do anything else, and it works! A big surprise, considering Max’ drunkenness.
Since Entrecard is not really my cup of tea, what is entertaining is Max’ blog, at www.sitehoppin.com/blog. Constantly drunk, Max provides the latest SiteHoppin news and development updates, his personal standpoints, ramblings and other ingredients for a good laugh – all in COLOR video. Which is good for your tired minds and eyes, after a long day of hard work.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Wikia could take a large share of the market as proven by Korean search engine giant Naver.com
This might comes to a shock to some of you but yes, Google’s search engine dominance in South Korea is less than 2%. Proof?
Here’s an image I got from a blog post from Korea:
As you can see in the above graph, Naver.com is dominant with over 70% market share, Daum.net with 12%, Yahoo at 7%, Empas.com at 2%, and Google at the last place. The above graph is from last year but it probably hasn’t changed much a year later.
Why is it that the famous PageRank not working for the South Koreans?
Answer is simple. Google’s Algorithm is geared toward the English language. As soon as you put another language, the algorithm no longer works. (This is not the case with all languages such as Spanish, French, or other languages derived from Latin)
Even me, I remember rarely using Google in Korea unless I wanted to find something in English. (Funny thing is, as soon as I come back to the US, I am ONLY using Google…)
How did Naver.com take so much market share? They don’t have an algorithm.
From what I hear on the news and my friends over in Korea, Naver has like 100,000 people working at their company adding and editing their search engine results daily.
Basically, Naver is a “human” powered search engine, sorta like what founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales is building right now, the Wikia. You can check out Wikia’s new alpha version of the search engine here.
I tried the Wiki search engine but the results? very mediocre indeed. But I do remember when Wikipedia first started appearing on the internet, the Wikipedia content was so crap back then I didn’t think it’d get so big today.
I think Wikia has a chance at grabbing a big share of the search engine market if they can start picking up more users. We will give it some time and come back to this topic later down the road.
Although there have been rumors that Wikia may not be so successful at taking some share of the search engine market from Google, this study proves that the “PageRank” algorithm can be beaten in other countries.
FYI, Korea has about 15 Million internet users. Naver.com makes about $15 million in revenue annually. (Nothing compared to Google but why isn’t Google at the top with the billions of dollar they have? I mean, they did open an office in Korea couple years back too.)
The point of this story?
Not that Wikia might get some of the market share but that search engine markets in other countries are still vulnerable to young MBA graduates (or dropouts) like Sergey Brin.
I apologize if you can’t read Korean and all my sources are in Korean but I have only translated them and all sources are from respectable blogs in Korea.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Google’s Knol Project Update - Lots of BUZZ on the Internet
Wow, it seems like search results for “Knol Project” is multiplying at the rate of every hour! It’s amazing how no one has really even tried this new Knol Project yet, there’s so much buzz going around the internet. We think Knol Project will be basically Google’s new knowledge database that will add nicely to their portfolio of search knowledge database.
Although we predict that Knol Project will never be close to Wikipeidia’s mass collaboration of information, Google’s new Knul Project could prove to be pivotal in providing useful information from authoratative sources such as real doctors and real professionals who practice their content, instead of having random people contributing to articles like Wikipedia.
We predict that their search results will still honor Wikipedia’s authority as long as Knol’s content isn’t any better. But if Knol proves otherwise, Wikipedia could be on its way to slow and tortourous death. (We doubt that though…)
In our efforts to keep up with Google’s latest Wiki project, we’ve got all the great news about the Knol Project in one post here:
CNet - Google develops Wikipedia rival
Zedomax - Knols Project Followup - Google’s Knol Project reminds me of a Paid Wiki
Wired News - Google’s ‘Knols’ aren’t a Threat to Wikipedia
QuarterWiki - Knols Project - Google’s new Wikipedia
BBC News - Google Debuts knowledge Project
OneBuckWiki - Knols Project - Google is building their own Wikipedia
EntreWiki - Google proves Wiki monetization is the future with its new Knols Project!
FiveDollarWiki - Google trying to make a paid wiki with its new project Knols Project!
The Huffington Post - Google Knol: Finder Becomes Producer
Gizmodo - Google Puts Wikipedia in its Sights, to Launch Knol Open Encyclopedia
EarthTimes - Google unveils anti-Wikipedia project ‘Knol’ - Featureseachviews - Google Launches Encyclopedia Project Knols
iTWire - Here comes Google’s Knol ‘edge’
BloggingStocks - Google’s Knol project: A Wikipedia killer?
Joe Duck - Google’s knol project
ReadWriteWeb - Knols Project: Google Experimenting With User Generated Encyclopedic Pages
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...QuarterWiki - Pages are being sold like Hotcakes!
The Quarter Wiki is a new paid online encyclopedia where you can buy your own page for just a quarter.
Unlike Wikipedia, you can add videos, RSS Feeds, Google Ads, and GoogleMaps to a page on the QuarterWiki.
More simply, QuarterWiki filters spam by charging a small fee for each page so you don’t have to deal with it.
To get started with QuarterWiki, sign up for an account and search for your desired words you’d like to purchase.
Don’t want to buy a page but want to help us? Join the discussion on John Chow dot com and leave a comment for us! 