AVR demo platform rocks the color VGA +audio
July 22, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Linus Akesson and friends have created the "Craft" demo - using an ATmega88 to generate 4 channels of 8-bit sound and 3D graphics.
Timing is crucial: One display line takes 24 ?s, and is followed by a 7.75 ?s break called the horizontal blanking period. After 480 such lines, there's a longer break (1428.75 ?s, equal to 45 full display lines) before it all starts over. Two digital signals are used to synchronize the sender (graphics card, custom demo hardware etc.) and the receiver (monitor).- Craft demo Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Electronics | Digg this! Tags: make
[...]
Sound is generated during the horizontal blanking periods. That gives a sample rate of 31496 kHz. Of course, only the really timing critical part (waveform generation) is performed during the horizontal blanking. Melody, rhythm, amplitude envelopes, arpeggios etc. are handled by a playroutine which gets called once for every video frame, during vertical blanking.
Related posts
Audi unveils enviable MMI for upcoming A8 sedan
July 22, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
Related posts
New York Times, LinkedIn Enter Content Partnership
July 22, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
In a brilliant move that's sure to make both newspapers and social networks around the web jealous, the New York Times and LinkedIn, the leading US social network for professionals, are announcing a content partnership tonight that could substantially increase the value for users of both sites. The announcement will be made at the top of the hour, but the integration is live now.
LinkedIn users are now being shown personalized news targeting their industry verticals on the Business and Technology sections of NYTimes.com and will then be prompted to share those stories will professional associates.
We're big on LinkedIn here at RWW and though a wide open developers platform has yet to emerge, moves like this are inspiring. The deal is an important step beyond the previous integration of sharing hooks on NYTimes.com from other services.
A number of other social networks and bookmarking services have "share this story" links on NYT stories, but it's unclear how much traction those links alone are getting. Last month we wrote about one of those services, social news site Mixx, that's still seeing fewer than 1 million unique visitors per month despite "share this on Mixx" buttons on a long list of the biggest news sites in the world, including NYTimes.com.
How much more compelling is this partnership? We think it's a lot more compelling; check out the screenshots below and imagine the feedback loop this could create between the NYT and LinkedIn. LinkedIn has 25 million registered users and the NYT sees 17 million + unique visitors per month, but the partnership will need none the less to introduce more people to LinkedIn in order to really be a home run. See this NYT page for an "introduction to LinkedIn." That's pretty classy, though it's unclear yet when that link will be displayed and when it won't.
We'll see how the recommendation process works; we hope it doesn't rely exclusively only on explicitly shared links, but we'll see. This certainly gets the mental juices flowing about any number of other integration and recommendation possibilities.
One question we have is about money changing hands. There has been extensive discussion around the web of late about LinkedIn using partnerships as a revenue source and it wouldn't surprise us if the NYT is paying for this integration. LinkedIn may not be a huge social network, but its user demographics are some of the most financially desirable in the world.
We expect to see more partnerships like this emerge, perhaps from a chastised Facebook attempting to relaunch its Beacon program in a more acceptable fashion.
Related posts
Fujitsu bumps Amilo 3540 to Centrino 2
July 22, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Filed under: Laptops
Related posts
The CherryPal cloud PC: $249, ready for (the new world) order
July 21, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Filed under: Desktops
[Via Crave]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Related posts
NYT Pushing Back at WSJ With Boost to Business Coverage
July 20, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
This week’s edition of Advertising Age has a somewhat revealing piece concerning movements in Web media space by some old media titans. In particular, The New York Times versus The Wall Street Journal. We’ve heard the WSJ talk adventurous talk in months past about conditioning itself to compete more effectively in the general news space with the NYT. Now it’s being said that, in addition to the NYT’s attempts to draw itself further into the social realm online, the outfit is pressing to meet the WSJ in its own court: business.
Indeed, according to Vivian Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the NYT’s website, coverage will grow in the areas of “the economy, energy, small business, personal finance and enterprise technology,” all of it constructed into verticals in vein of the popular DealBook blog. This move was recently hinted at by John Markoff, a writer and reporter for the paper, while sitting as a guest on a recent episode of “Cranky Geeks,” a weekly video podcast hosted by John C. Dvorak.
I must say, this is fairly interesting information to consider. The Wall Street Journal has made known its intention to increase the value of its website’s components in the area of business, along with a general site-wide refresh scheduled for the fall season, which might help to spur its paid subscription platform further. (This despite a move by The New York Times to eliminate virtually all reader fees on the Web.)
And now that The New York Times is said to be working on delivering expanded business coverage, which one would presume will be entirely ad-supported, The New York Times is evidently leaving little to chance. Staff layoffs aside, it’s evidently working to challenge The Wall Street Journal in its primary domain. The logic seems to be, when all is said and done, to fight fire with fire.
The questions to ask now seems to be: Could this mean that WSJ.com will have to play defense against NYTimes.com? Will favored business coverage continue to fall to WSJ.com? And, reversely, will the traditional strength of varietal reporting by NYTimes.com become stretched and diminish in stature with the WSJ.com coming up closely behind?
It seems to me that both news organizations will retain some allegiance among readers. But while the generations that have lived largely with paper are replaced with the generations that rely mostly on computer-enabled information consumption, crossover will occur at an increasing rate. It’s already done so to large degree, in fact. And at this point in time, my impression is that, for WSJ.com to achieve the ends it seeks, it will have to submit to the call for free-access to its content.
That simple. On the Web it’s a numbers game. It’s a matter of who has more readers and how much they read. In that respect, NYTimes.com is the better bet right now. (Eventually, reader wealth demographics will become more and more important as well.)
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
Business 2.0 May Be Getting the Axe from Time Inc.
Business 2.0 Says Goodbye
Business 3.0 Facebook App Doesn’t Live Up to its Name
Google Will Pay You to Add Business Info to Maps
iPhone Now Wears a Suit: AT&T Unveils Business Plan
Zoho Business Launching At Office 2.0 Conference
Business Week Online Covers Web 2.0
Related posts
Facebook Sets Second Redesign Launch Attempt for Tonight
July 20, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Alright, so Facebook kind of failed to accurately estimate when it would be taking long-talked-about profile redesign. The number last tossed around was July 16. The day came, the day went, and nothing. No changes made. That may have made for an anticlimactic Wednesday for some. So will the second try, scheduled for this evening, according to Justin Smith of Inside Facebook, turn out to be the true charmer?
As you may be aware, Facebook has been teasing users as of late with a test page to give a glimpse of what’s to come. And the network began in Spring to allow developers to familiarize themselves with the new layout. When doors officially open, all of Facebook’s members will be access, albeit through a transitional, opt-in model.
The upgrade to the profile page isn’t a whirlwind transformation. Most users will likely intuit for themselves how to manage their information in no time. But it’s a welcome move all the same. The current design has been in place for quite a while. Lots of things in the social networking space have evolved with the seasons. Facebook would do well to alter itself a bit, too. Of course, it’s largest task has been to bring application developers into alignment
Of course, it’s largest task has been bringing application developers into alignment. If you’re counting on an entirely glitch-less upgrade, you may be in luck. Or you may not. Much may depend on your chosen third-party installs. In that respect, there’s still some chance for a bit of disappointment. And as far as potential hiccups on Facebook’s end, well, suffice it to say that the company acknowledged a problem with API performance days after days after the profile update was originally intended for public launch.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
Facebook Profile Redesign: Sandbox Now Open to Developers
Facebook Puts Off Early April Redesign
Facebook Redesign: Are Developers Ready?
Facebook Guy Dead at 3: Poke in Peace
Facebook Profile Redesign Beta Launches July 16th. Are Users Ready?
YellowPages Redesigned to Better Accommodate Local Search
Facebook Loses Another Early Executive
Related posts
Google’s Lively: Another ‘What If’ at Google?
July 18, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
This is a guest post written by Bernard Moon, Vice President of the Lunsford Group, a private holding company consisting of entities in technology, media, research & consulting, health care, investment boutique, and real estate. Bernard blogs at Silicon Moon.
The recent announcement of Google’s Lively product has created a stir in some circles, but for me it’s a yawner. Why? It’s another Google product not related to their bread and butter of search and ads. The company was built on a philosophy that products should sell themselves, so their marketing efforts are minuscule and their product development process seems undeveloped. Also “products” are not really great design but great engineering. While this approach has been wondrous for Google’s core search business and related profit margins, it has created misguided results with possibly billions of dollars left on the table.
Similar to Lively, Google’s social networking service, Orkut, was built by Orkut Büyükkökten on his 20% time. In typical fashion, Orkut was launched with little marketing strategy and received some initial fanfare.
When Google finally opened Orkut up and allowed anyone to join in 2006, it randomly became the leading social network in Brazil. While Alexa rankings are inaccurate, Orkut recently became the 11th most trafficked site in the world. In most situations, this would be a wild success, but imagine if they actually targeted specific segments in the U.S. instead of throwing dice? Orkut strategically targeted India, which has led to its leadership position there, but what other markets has Google missed?
I’m not fond of “what if” scenarios, but what if they opened up earlier and targeted the college market in 2004 as Facebook was slowly spreading through the Ivy League schools? Or if they tailored it to the teen market in the U.K.? It seems Google is now paying attention to Orkut’s growth and development, but they already missed several larger opportunities.
Google Product Search service (formerly Froogle) was another missed opportunity. Officially launched in 2002, it wallowed in mediocrity for years. I don’t know if this was a 20% project, but it seems like another engineering project not coupled with a product manager and little marketing guidance. If there is one area that has been a consistent startup goldmine from the first boom to today, it is shopping comparison engines.
CNET acquired mySimon for $700 million (2000), Yahoo acquired Kelkoo for $640 million (2004), eBay acquired Shopping.com for $620 million (2005), Shopzilla sold for $525 million (2005), and several others including Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Jellyfish.com for $50 million (2007). Shopping search engines generate great revenue and accumulate an incredible amount of valuable user data. What has Google done with Froogle? How much revenue has it generated since 2002? How many millions have been left at the doorsteps of its competitors?
Gmail’s invitation-only beta release began in April 2004. I remember receiving an invite from my friend at Google that month and testing it out. I quickly fell in love with Gmail. I loved how it grouped email conversations, the label function and the clean user interface. Over the next couple years I ran into more fans of Gmail, so I kept wondering when it would open up. It finally did in February 2007, but I questioned the rationale of this decision. What if they opened it up sooner? What if they promoted it beyond a link off its homepage?
Today, there are approximately 262 million Yahoo! email users, 256 million Live Hotmail users, 87 million Gmail users and 49 million AOL users worldwide. With my biases, I have to ask why is the best free email service a distant third?
This leads me to question Google’s approach to product development and marketing beyond their core services. While it seeks to organize the world’s information, there are products on its periphery where design and marketing can be factors towards success and untapped revenues. Google’s engineering driven culture that has doubtingly created enormous growth and shareholder value, but great engineering and design is not mutually exclusive.
Looking at Apple, their company culture is driven by design and user experience. Engineering supports the creation of Apple’s designs, and this consistent approach has served the company well in its new era.
I believe Google can learn a little from Apple and its obsessive design culture and incredible marketing machine. While I believe Google should always be an engineering driven culture and company, some room should be left for the design freaks and marketing geniuses to optimize the value of their treasure chest of innovation.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:
No Sex in Lively? Yeah, Right!
Is Google Building a Media Empire Based on Your Searches? Of Course.
Google Launches Lively to Create a Virtual World Across Social Networks
Virtual Worlds: 20+ Tools for Creating 3D Graphics and Environments
Google To Launch Google Wiki
Google Maps Hangs Up on Click-to-Call
Google Checkout Trends Knows Your Shopping Habits
Related posts
Review: Wall-E - Mirror.co.uk
July 18, 2008 Category: Disney news No Comments »
 Telegraph.co.uk | Review: Wall-E Mirror.co.uk - 18 Jul 2008 Pixar releases yet another animated movie and, once again, it’s time to reach for the thesaurus to find words to describe its sheer beauty. Film review: WALL·E Telegraph.co.uk WHAT A WALL-E Hackney Gazette Norfolk Eastern Daily Press - Pocket-lint.co.uk - Yorkshire Post - Sheffield Telegraph all 48 news articles |
AMD reports Q2 results: $1.2B loss, quitting handheld and digital television businesses
July 18, 2008 Category: Uncategorized No Comments »
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Well, no wonder Hector Ruiz quit as the CEO of AMD earlier today -- the chipmaker just announced its second quarter results, and they're not good. In addition to an overall $269M operating loss, the company is taking an $876M charge against the purchase of ATI so it can abandon the handheld graphics and digital TV markets. To be honest, we hadn't been hearing much about ATI's plans in those areas, so it's probably for the best the company is focusing on getting Barcelona out the door after the launch of Puma -- but we doubt much is going to happen with a power vacuum at the top and a bottom line that's bleeding red.[Via Crave]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
