August 2008 at Source Code | Free Indo Source Code ~ Technology & Programming

JRuby 1.1.4 Released

The JRuby community is pleased to announce the release of JRuby 1.1.4!

JRuby 1.1.4 is the fourth point release of JRuby 1.1. The fixes in this release are primarily obvious compatibility problems and performance enhancements.

Our goal is to put out point releases more frequently for the next several months (about 3-4 weeks a release). We want a more rapid release cycle to better address issues brought up by users of JRuby.

Highlights:

- Massive refactoring of Java integration layer
- 2-20x speed up of most features (calls, construction, arrays)
- Many long-standing Ruby/Java interaction bugs fixed
- Existing features made more consistent, reliable
- Closures can be passed as interface to static methods, constructors
- Java exceptions can be raised/rescued directly from Ruby
- Massive memory efficiency improvements (a lot less GC)
- Beginning of Ruby 1.9 support (enabled with --1.9 flag)
- Native complex/rational
- Additional efficiency, performance work in the interpreter
- Memory leak under --manage repaired
- FFI subsystem for calling C libraries
- syslog module from Rubinius is working and included
- win32 API support started
- Thread pooling improved (at least one production user now)
- Array concurrent-access improvements
- 72 issues resolved since JRuby 1.1.3

Homepage: http://www.jruby.org/
Download: http://dist.codehaus.org/jruby/

Technorati Tags: ruby,java,programming

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50+ FTP Sites to Download Softwares, Games, Music, Movies and e-Books

Internet definitely has several unheard places of also known as underground websites, few of these website offer users 100s and 1000s of softwares, games, movies and music for downloads, though these sites are pretty tough to find, we were able to unearth more than 50+ FTP sites that allow users to download softwares, games, movies and music for free.

Here is a list of 50+ FTP sites that will allow you download content for free. Don’t forget to share and bookmark this page so that everyone can take advantage of it.

ftp://ftp.freenet.de/pub/filepilot/

ftp://193.43.36.131/Radio/MP3/

ftp://195.216.160.175/

ftp://207.71.8.54:21/games/

ftp://194.44.214.3/pub/music/

ftp://202.118.66.15/pub/books

ftp://129.241.210.42/pub/games/

ftp://clubmusic:clubmusic@217.172.16.3:8778/

ftp://212.174.160.21/games

ftp://ftp.uar.net/pub/e-books/

ftp://129.241.210.42/pub/games/

ftp://193.231.238.4/pub/

ftp://207.71.8.54/games/

ftp://194.187.207.98/video/

ftp://194.187.207.98/music/

ftp://194.187.207.98/soft/

ftp://194.187.207.98/games/

ftp://ftp.uglan.ck.ua/

ftp://159.153.197.74/pub

ftp://leech:l33ch@61.145.123.141:5632/

ftp://psy:psy@ftp.cybersky.ru

ftp://130.89.175.1/pub/games/

ftp://194.44.214.3/pub/

ftp://195.116.114.144:21/

ftp://64.17.191.56:21/

ftp://80.255.128.148:21/pub/

ftp://83.149.236.35:21/packages/

ftp://129.241.56.118/

ftp://81.198.60.10:21/

ftp://128.10.252.10/pub/

ftp://129.241.210.42/pub/

ftp://137.189.4.14/pub

ftp://139.174.2.36/pub/

ftp://147.178.1.101/

ftp://156.17.62.99/

ftp://159.153.197.74/pub/

ftp://193.140.54.18/pub/

ftp://192.67.63.35/

ftp://166.70.161.34/

ftp://195.161.112.15/musik/

ftp://195.161.112.15/

ftp://195.131.10.164/software

ftp://195.146.65.20/pub/win/

ftp://199.166.210.164/

ftp://195.46.96.194/pub/

ftp://212.122.1.85/pub/software/

ftp://193.125.152.110/pub/.1/misc/sounds/mp3/murray/

We have tested that each of the above site is working. We are only providing users with a resource to the FTP sites and do not host any of the files on these servers.

Source: techie-buzz.com

Technorati Tags: download,software,program

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Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Now Available

We’re excited to release IE8 Beta 2 today for public download. You can find it at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8. Please try it out!

You’ll find versions for 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. In addition to English, IE8 Beta 2 is available in Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and German. Additional languages will be available soon.

While Beta 1 was for developers, we think that anyone who browses or works on the web will enjoy IE8 Beta 2. Before the team blogs about our Beta 2 in detail, here’s an overview of what you’ll find in IE8.

We focused our work around three themes: everyday browsing (the things that real people do all the time), safety (the term most people use for what we’ve called ‘trustworthy’ in previous posts), and the platform (the focus of Beta 1, how developers around the world will build the next billion web pages and the next waves of great services).

Everyday Browsing

We looked very hard at how people really browse the web. We looked at a lot of data about how people browse and tried a lot of different designs in front of many kinds of people, not just technologists. As tempting as it is to list here all the changes both big and small in IE8, we’ll take a more holistic approach. That’s how we built the product and how we’d like to talk about it.

From our customer research, we saw that the bulk of user activity outside of web pages involved tabs and “navigation” – the act of getting to the site the user wants to get to. We also knew that adding features has an impact only if they’re “in the flow” of how people actually use the product. Another menu item might matter in a checklist on a blog somewhere, but won’t matter to real people browsing. That’s why IE8’s New Tab experience is so remarkable: it’s obvious – after you see it:

Download: Internet Explorer 8 (English, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese)

source: microsoft.com

Technorati Tags: browser,internet,download

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Microsoft to add privacy features to IE8

Microsoft on Monday described some new privacy features that will come with IE8, the next release of its browser. The features are designed to make it easier for people to delete and control information about their Web browsing history.

With InPrivate Browsing, one of the new features, a user launches a new InPrivate Browsing window to go online. When the users closes the window, IE doesn't store any cookies, passwords, words typed into the address bar, search queries, temporary Internet files or form data from the browsing session.

Another new feature aims to address a shortcoming in the way the current version of IE lets people delete their browsing history. When a user deletes their browsing history today, they also get rid of cookies that are used to save preferences tied to Web sites that they might visit often.

With IE8, users can delete their browsing history but retain the cookies for frequently visited sites. The implementation for this will be a bit clunky for users, however. To make sure cookies are retained for certain sites, users will have to add those sites to their Favorites list. After that, the cookies for those sites will be retained when the browsing history is deleted.

Microsoft also hopes to help users better control the type of information that Web sites might share about them with third parties. Companies that provide content to Web sites often collect information about people who visit those sites, but end users sometimes don't know the information is being collected, Microsoft said. If the content provider supplies content to multiple sites, it can compile valuable browsing information about users who visit those sites.

A feature in IE8 called InPrivate Blocking keeps a record of when those content providers collect browsing information about the user, and will automatically block providers who have collected information about a user on more than 10 sites. Users can also choose which content they block or allow, and learn more about third-party content.

Microsoft is expected to release another beta of IE8 this month and release the final code before the end of this year.

source : computerworld.co.ke

Technorati Tags: internet,browser,microsoft

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Microsoft to Open Social Bookmarking for Techs

Microsoft is not going to the social networking craze pass it by.

So get ready for the latest from the software giant in the form of a social bookmarking service aimed at developers and other members of its tech-focused communities, the Microsoft Development Network (MSDN), TechNet and Expression.

In early September, Microsoft (NADAQ: MSFT) plans to open access to those sites, making the social bookmarking application that it previewed in May generally available.

"Since then, thousands of technical professionals from around the world have begun using it to save their web favorites online, share them with others, see what other technical pros are favoriting, and connect with others," John Martin, Microsoft's lead evangelist for servers and tools online, wrote in a blog post.

The social bookmarking app will layer in a collaborative feature to Microsoft's tech-focused online communities, where users can participate in discussion forums and find educational resources to help them various tech projects, such as sample code, online tutorials and training videos.

Microsoft plans to introduce several new features with the September release, including a subscription service that will enable users to receive RSS feeds of specific tags or the submissions of other bookmarkers.

The upgrade will also provide an importing feature for people to sync up their other bookmarking services, such as Yahoo's Delicious, as well as import their bookmarks from Internet Explorer browser.

Also planned is a bookmarking widget for people to place on their Web sites or blogs, enabling visitors to add the page to their social bookmarks on Microsoft's three communities. That feature could give site owners and bloggers a traffic lift, as the bookmarked page would be published on the social feeds emanating from Microsoft's global sites.

Finally, the September release will expand its foreign-language support. The new version will be available in Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and both a simplified and traditional version of Chinese.

Source : internetnews.com

Technorati Tags: social,bookmark,microsoft

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Hacker 'proves' Olympic gymnasts underage

A hacker has unearthed evidence that several of the Chinese gymnast team were underage, as suspected. The digital remains of deleted files were dug up revealing the real ages of the Chinese athletes that won gold ahead of the United States.

Search engine hacker Stryde Hax – earth name Mike Walker – found traces of the official registration documents in the translation cache of Chinese search engine Baidu. The files had been deleted by the authorities from the official site, and Google documents.

They stated that one of the women-child gymnasts, He Kexin, was only 14 this year, beneath the mandatory age for competing of 16, which must be reached during the Olympic year. Kexin also won individual gold on the uneven bars.

No event for young girls

Two other members of the six-strong team – Jiang Yuyuan and Yang Yilin – also appear to be underage from the evidence of both these documents and most people's eyes. The Olympic age limit was introduced to protect the bodies of young gymnasts. The US protest is motivated more for the extra body bend that youth lends to such activities.

When asked about the age controversy, IOC President Jacques Rogge said: "The IOC relies on the international federations, who are exclusively responsible for the eligibility of athletes. It's not the task of the IOC to check every one of the 10,000 athletes."

On this no-nonsense note, we can only hope the IOC introduces a box in its next registration form asking drug cheats to give details of what performance-enhancing chemicals they have ingested over the preceding months.

source : techradar.com

Technorati Tags: hack,crack,olympic

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MoneyQuake Firefox extension, display your AdSense earning stat in real-time.

MoneyQuake is a simple, safe and secure, powerful Firefox extension, which displays your earning statistics from different PPC and advertisment systems.

Supported systems :

Каванга!
AdultAdsCash
AdultFriendFinder
Begun
Begun Ads
Bidvertiser.com
Buckster
Glavmed
Google Adsense
KlikVip
Mainlink.ru
NastyDollars

PeakClick
Sape.ru
SoftwareProfit
StreamRay
TraficCashGold
UmaxSearch
WildCash
Yandex.Direct:
Admeans.ru
E-customer
Mixmarket
Profit-Project

MoneyQuake was tested for security and approved by Mozilla.org. Current version is 1.1.1. You can install it from here or here..

Technorati Tags: adsense,money,software

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Build An AJAX Powered Shopping Cart

The goal of this tutorial is to show you how to build an AJAX powered shopping cart. However, it will not be production ready. The back end requirements vary from site to site far too much to write an effective tutorial. Instead, we are going to focus on the AJAX parts.

The back end code in this tutorial acts as scaffolding for us to build the AJAX functionality, however, it can be built off of to meet your own site's requirements. In the last section, we'll discuss some possible next steps to implementing this in your own websites.

The other thing to note is that this tutorial will not explain all the details. A firm grasp of HTML, CSS, and some basic PHP is expected. By basic I mean variables, arrays, control structures, and basic OOP. Some knowledge of Javascript is a plus. We'll walk through and break down the trickier bits of PHP and Javascript, but will gloss over the basic stuff like CSS styling. Links to documentation and other relevant resources will be sprinkled throughout wherever relevant.

The final thing to note is that the order codes (or product codes) used in this tutorial are completely arbitrary.

The Demo

The demo page shows a few different ways our AJAX shopping cart can function. It should be noted that this is not a production ready shopping cart. Due to variability of the requirements from site to site, this tutorial will only cover building the skeleton while you will have to code in the details for retrieving product names, prices, and other data that might come from a database.

Step 1 - Downloading the scripts

We're going to be using jQuery, the jQuery color animations plugin, and Thickbox. The color plugin extends jQuery to allow us to use jQuery to animate colors and Thickbox lets us create quick and easy modal windows.

Create a directory on your web server for the cart to live in. For this tutorial we'll be using cart/. Substitute cart/ with the directory you are using on your server. Inside the cart/ directory create js/, css/, and images/ folders for storing your Javascript, CSS, and images.

Download the jQuery, color plugin, and Thickbox files and save them into the appropriate folders we just created in the cart/ directory. Make sure you download the uncompressed thickbox.js.

Your folder structure should look something like this. I have renamed some of the files but it should be pretty obvious what each one is.

cart/js/jquery-1.2.6.pack.js
cart/js/jquery.color.js
cart/js/thickbox.js
cart/css/thickbox.css
cart/images/loadingAnimation.gif
cart/images/macFFBgHack.png

Step 2 - Setup Thickbox

Since our folder structure is a little different from the default Thickbox one, we're going to need to fix some of the paths referencing loadingAnimation.gif and macFFBgHack.png.

GTA IV named best-selling game in the world

GTA IV terrorizes global sales

The NPD Group released its first global list of best-selling games on Thursday with Grand Theft Auto IV taking the top spot.

According to worldwide data compiled from the top three video game bean-counters, NPD (United States), Chart-Track (UK), and Enterbrain (Japan), these are the best-selling games so far this year:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV (6,293,000 copies sold)
2. Super Smash Brothers Brawl (5,433,000)
3. Mario Kart Wii (4,697,000)
4. Wii Fit (3,604,000)
5. Guitar Hero III (3,475,000)

It should be noted that outside of GTA IV, Nintendo Wii accounted for the second, third, and fourth best-selling games, in addition to being the lead-selling system for Guitar Hero III which holds the fifth spot.

The "Top Global Markets Report" is based on software point of sale data from the three biggest video game markets in the world. It arrives as the often inaccurate estimate site, VG Chartz, has gained considerable attention over the last year for attempting to compile worldwide video game sales.

source : gamepro.com

Technorati Tags: games,best,world

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Ajax Control Toolkit released for .NET 3.5 SP1

This is an intermediary release that provides a version of the Toolkit that is built against the .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. It contains a new control, MultiHandleSlider, built by Daniel Crenna (thanks, Daniel, you're the hero of this release) and integrates patches contributed by the community. A big thank you to all who contributed (see their names in the hall of fame).

The sample web site is not yet updated to this new release, this will be done in a couple of days. I will update this post once this is done.

What's next?

In the very short term, we will provide a client-side only version of the toolkit, similar to the Microsoft Ajax Library, that enables the development of Toolkit-based applications that do not rely on server-side ASP.NET. This version can also be used in performance-intensive scenarios where resource-based scripts and resources are not desirable, or if you simply prefer to work with files.
Our top priority following this release is bug fixing in order to get back to a stable and low number of bugs. We also have a number of contributors working on new controls, following the priorities the community communicated us.
As usual, all feedback is very welcome.

http://www.codeplex.com/AjaxControlToolkit/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=16488

source : weblogs.asp.net/bleroy

Technorati Tags: asp.net,ajax,control

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Microsoft Is Gearing Up for Windows 7 Downloads

Even with Microsoft increasingly opening up on Windows Vista's successor, the hunger for Windows 7 details is far from being satiated. This because the Redmond giant, through Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, continues to be firmly in control of all the information made public.

Sill the Windows 7 feast could not be without its crumbs, and the latest example points to Microsoft gearing up for Windows 7 downloads, namely updates for the next iteration of the Windows client, via WSUS, but not only.

According to the screenshot included toward the bottom of this article (courtesy of Yannis), the Windows 7 Client has been added among the products on the list for the Windows Server Update Services. "You can specify the products for which you want to synchronize updates," reads the message at the top of the dialog box, while a note at the bottom says "all products, including products that are added in the future." In addition to Windows 7 Client WSUS has also been tailored to serve the Windows Internet Explorer 8 Dynamic Installer. However, as you can see, there is no mention of Windows Server 2008 R2, developed under the codename Windows 7 Server.

Microsoft is not serving updates for Windows 7 yet, and in this regard there are no items that can be synchronized. Still, the next version of Windows is featured on the WSUS list all th\e same. "Microsoft Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP1 (WSUS 3.0 SP1) enables information technology administrators to deploy the latest Microsoft product updates to computers running Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 operating systems. By using WSUS, administrators can fully manage the distribution of updates that are released through Microsoft Update to computers in their network," reads Microsoft’s description of WSUS 3.0 SP1 released in March 2008.

The introduction of Windows 7 among the products on the list of operating systems supported by WSUS means nothing for now. Still, it does reveal Microsoft’s intentions to start delivering updates for Vista's successor even as the platform will be in development, therefore the use of the Windows 7 codename. But in the end, integrating Windows 7 with WSUS is not the sole update-focused initiative from Microsoft. The Windows Serviceability (WinSE) and Windows Update (WU) teams are hard at work on the next generation of the updating infrastructure servicing the Windows platform.

"The WU Tools team is in the very beginning stages of development on a new End-to-End automation and tools suite that will completely change the way the WU team and its customers publish content," a member of the Windows Update Tools teams revealed.

source: news.softpedia.com

Technorati Tags: windows,update,7

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Detect Invisible Yahoo Messenger

No one can hide from you anymore!

Vizgin, developed by Shervin Khaleghjou, offers free yahoo invisible user checker and It’s 99.9% accurate with she/her photo, and you will see 1% of times busy status. Just enter Yahoo ID and you're done!

No registration required. Check this out : vizgin.com

Technorati Tags: yahoo,messenger,invisible,detect

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Super CSV v1.50 released

Super CSV is a free Java CSV framework. It has been developed over around a year by now and according to Source Forge statistics (which I don't really believe ;) has been downloaded a frightening number of times. Well, that is before their statistics module broke down some months ago.

I know that CSV files really have gone out of fashion, but this is really unfortunate. If you didn't know it, I don't think too highly of XML. I've tried it project after project, XML is regarded the holy grail and all you get out of it is slugish'ness. Anyway, here is the latest release of Super CSV. Many thanks to Dominique De Vito for his many ideas and contributions.

Enough talking, it's time for the juicy details of the release...

Added the following cell processors
- Equals - test if all values are equals alone, or equals to a given constant
- FmtBoot - format as a string any Boolean value
- HashMapper - to map encountered values with other objects/values
- IsIncludedIn - to ensure input value belongs to a specific set of given values
- NotNull - to ensure non-null values for columns
- ParseBigDecimal - parse a string to get a big decimal
- StrNotNullOrEmpty - to ensure non-null or empty values for columns
- StrReplace - for string manipulation
- StrRegExReplace - for string manipulation
Deprecated the following cell processors
- "Required", re-implemented as "RequiredHashCode"
Unique has been renamed to UniqueHashCode
A new processor named Unique has been implemented
- The Unique processor is now based on equals() identity and not anymore on hashCode() identity. Previous definition based on hashCode() has been renamed into UniqueHashCode.
BeanReader and BeanWriter now supports method overloading of get/set methods.
Cell processors now only throw SuperCSVException
Added the following exceptions
- ClassCastInputCSVException
- NullInputException: this exception is raised now for unexpected 'null' input value for processor. Numerous processors have been modified to use that exception class.
better handling of lines without the expected number of columns
- The raised exception is now associated with a valid CSVContext object (previously, this object was 'null')
Better error messages, more context information in the exception and available to the programmer

To get a copy of the latest version visit the download page If you want more code examples go here

From : firstclassthoughts.co.uk

Technorati Tags: java,csv

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SyncToy 2.0 - Free XP SP3 and Vista SP1 Synchronization Tool

Microsoft has made available for download a free synchronization tool tailored to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and to Windows XP Service Pack 3, but also to earlier versions of the two clients such as Vista RTM and XP SP2.

SyncToy 2.0 has been taken out of Beta stage, and the gold version of the code is live as of the end of the past week. Essentially a file management tool, SyncToy 2.0 is designed to permit users to "copy, move, rename, and delete" items between both folders and computers. Liam Cavanagh, senior program manager, Data Replication and Synchronization, revealed that SyncToy 2.0 has as its basis the Microsoft Sync Framework.

The Redmond company is presenting the PowerToy as the right tool to do all the heavy lifting for users when it comes to file synchronization. However, SyncToy is intended only as an enhancement of the Windows operating system and is not supported by the company. In this context, SyncToy has only been tested on a few operating systems, with the focus on Vista and XP, although it is possible that the tool will also integrate with additional platforms including Windows Home Server with Power Pack 1.

Dynamic Drive Letter Assignment, True Folder Sync, Exclusion Filtering Based on Name, Filtering Based on File Attributes, and Unattended Folder Pair Execution are just some of the new additions introduced in version 2.0. Cavanagh revealed that "based on the feedback from the SyncToy Forum and Windows XP Professional Photography web site, the following features were added to this release of SyncToy: Drive letter reassignment will now be detected and updated in the folder pair definition. Folder creates, renames and deletes are now synchronized for all SyncToy actions. File exclusion based on name with exact or fuzzy matching. The ability to exclude files based on one or more file attributes (Read-Only, System, Hidden). Addressed issues related to running scheduled folder pairs while logged off."

But at the same time, SyncToy 2.0 final will offer users the possibility to share end-point folder pairs (Folder Pairs With Shared Endpoints), improved management via the command line interface, a rearchitected synchronization engine, increased reliability, support for encrypted files and for - 64-bit Windows operating systems.

In addition, the tool offers "Sub-folder Exclusion Enhancements: Descendents created under excluded sub-folders are automatically excluded. Usability improvements for the sub-folder exclusion dialog. Folder Pair Metadata Moved: Folder pair metadata removed from MyDocuments to resolve any issues with server-based folder pair re-direction setup. Setup Improvements: Integrated setup with single self-extracting archive file and no extra downloads if you already have .NET Framework 2.0 installed. Enabled silent install for the SyncToy Installer file. And removed combine and subscribe actions," stated Cavanagh.

SyncToy is an easy to use, customizable utility that will help you move, copy, rename and delete files between computers and folders.

There are new sources of files coming from every direction: digital cameras, e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops. Increasingly, computer users are using different folders, drives, and even different computers (such as a laptop and a desktop) to store and retrieve files. Yet managing hundreds or thousands of files is still largely a manual operation.

Download:
SyncToy 2.0 (x32)
SyncToy 2.0 (x64)

source: softpedia.com

Technorati Tags: windows,synchronization,vista

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Exclusive: A robot with a biological brain

University of Reading scientists have developed a robot controlled by a biological brain formed from cultured neurons. And this is a world’s premiere. Other research teams have tried to control robots with ‘brains,’ but there was always a computer in the loop. This new project is the first one to examine ‘how memories manifest themselves in the brain, and how a brain stores specific pieces of data.’ As life expectancy is increasing in most countries, this new research could provide insights into how the brain works and help aging people.

In fact, the main goal of this project is to understand better the development of diseases and disorders which affect the brain such as Alzheimer or Parkinson diseases. It’s interesting to note that this project is being led by Professor Kevin Warwick, who became famous in 1998 when a silicon chip was implanted in his arm to allow a computer to monitor him in order to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled. But read more…

A robot with a biological brain

You can see on the left a picture of this robot with a biological brain. “The brain consists of a collection of neurons cultured on a Multi Electrode Array (MEA). It communicates and controls the robot via a Bluetooth connection.” (Credit: University of Reading). Here is a link to a larger version of this picture.

These robots are developed at the Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group, part of the School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading. The team has been led by Kevin Warwick, Professor of Cybernetics (please also check his personal home page. He worked with two lecturers in his group, Dr Victor Becerra and Dr Slawomir Nasuto, as well as with Dr Ben Whalley, another lecturer in the School of Pharmacy.

Now, let’s look at these biological brains for robots. “The robot’s biological brain is made up of cultured neurons which are placed onto a multi electrode array (MEA). The MEA is a dish with approximately 60 electrodes which pick up the electrical signals generated by the cells. This is then used to drive the movement of the robot. Every time the robot nears an object, signals are directed to stimulate the brain by means of the electrodes. In response, the brain’s output is used to drive the wheels of the robot, left and right, so that it moves around in an attempt to avoid hitting objects. The robot has no additional control from a human or a computer, its sole means of control is from its own brain.”

More : blogs.zdnet.com

Technorati Tags: robot,biological,technology

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Microsoft details DirectX 11: shader model 5, hardware tessellation, multithreaded computing

Taking a step forward, Microsoft planned to not only improve in hardware rendering with the recently announced DirectX 11 API, but also expand the way software engineers could get their programs to work efficiently on modern computer hardware.

Upon reflection of the special feature by Kevin Gee of Microsoft (by way of Gamasutra's XNA portal), Microsoft plans to dive into the mechanics of multiple core and multithreaded computing by way of lower level hardware support.

Communicating with the computer hardware at the "down-level," DirectX 11 is expected to serve as the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) of the next Windows, just as DirectX 10 was to Windows Vista.

But unlike DX10, DX11 introduces a "no break" in-between the current generation API, in the same manner that DirectX10 introduced a discontinuity from DirectX 9. As announced before, DirectX 11 will be backward compatible with DirectX 10 hardware and supporting operating systems.

This would mean that Windows Vista and DirectX 10.1 hardware will be able to handle DirectX 11, though Gee confirms that the next generation application programming interface will release by the time the next Windows operating system ships to shelves as well.

In DX11, programmers will be able to streamline engineering of software for multi-core and multi-CPU computers. This is because Microsoft plans to not only implement rendering contexts (processing scheduling) and deferred contexts, but also asynchronous API calls.

This asynchronous system extends to communications and transactions between a multi-core CPU and a GPU, or a multi-core CPU and a multiple-GPU card, which either option would heed the instructions as listed by the primary immediate context and the added deferred contexts.

In addition to that, DX11 takes the idea of general purpose GPU processing and mixes in cross-hardware support. Regardless of graphics chip manufacturer, all modern GPUs with shader processors can be used for helping in processing applications.
But for graphics powerusers and game developers, perhaps the most interesting feature that DirectX 11 has planned for implementation is the inclusion of hardware tessellation. Microsoft's engineers introduced three hardware stages for the rendering pipeline that will allow high power GPUs to perform tessellation over hardware: the hull shader, the tessellator, and domain shader.

With DX11 also comes new texture compression methods BC6 and BC7. Microsoft boasts that these two compression formats are the best they can offer for the ratio of high-quality over performance.

Block compression 6 (BC6) compresses high dynamic ranging (HDR) data at a ratio of 6:1, given hardware support for decompression. BC7 offers 3:1 compression ratios for 8-bit low dynamic range (LDR) data.

DirectX 11 also introduces Shader Model 5 for High Level Shader Language (HLSL), providing a better way graphics programmers will be able to implement shader programs. It also adds double-precision support, which allows programmers to tackle shader specialization with polymorphism, objects, and interfaces.

Source : pc.qj.net

Technorati Tags: games,directx,hardware

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The world’s biggest post about Photoshop (PSDs, textures, tutorials, patterns, shapes, brushes and…)

Ok, this is a really particular post.

I’m working to create one of the biggest post about Photoshop (you know, i love this software…).

It is “in progress” which means that i will update it every time i’ll find new cool things. JUST FREE COOL THINGS.

If you want to participate, please, leave a comment with a good link and if you like this post…your vote is always appreciated (Digg it, Add to Delicious, Stumble This)!

UPDATE (august 9th): At this moment there are 50 links

70 Beauty-Retouching Photoshop Tutorials