Category: Other

Google Glasses – Is augmented reality the next big thing?

Published by admin on April 6, 2012

It seems that when a tech company gets too extensive cash reserves they always want to go into augmented reality creating wearable computers (Microsoft and IBM has already been there). Google has a research project going on, the company wants to create glasses connected to Google’s services to provide an augmented reality. The glasses will be able to display chats, messages, the weather and maps in a person's’ field of vision, according to a post the company made on Google+. Controlling the Google Glasses is done by voice commands (similar to the IBM wearable computing efforts mentioned below). If you want to know what a day with Google Glasses is like view the video below: Perhaps the market is ready for these type of devices, but it is doubtful that such glasses will be used for checking the weather or video-chatting. More likely usage scenarios are for providing information about anything the users sees, gaming and navigation in terrain. Google is certainly not the first tech company to create wearable computers. Most wearable computer efforts for consumers has been failures. One example is IBM who launched their wearable computer derived from a ThinkPad laptop in 1998. It had 233 MHz Intel processor, 64 MB RAM and was able to run Windows 98, according to the company website. The computer was controlled using voice commands. Of course the computer never hit the market, and the commercial didn’t do it any favours either:

Google Earth 5

Published by admin on April 17, 2009

Google Earth version 5 is here, what’s new you ask? Well if you ever wondered what the ocean-floor look like or what New York look liked five years ago you will love Google Earth 5. But we don’t stop there; we also take a look at all the other features in Google Earth in this walkthrough. I was always a sucker for Microsoft Encarta’s map features back in the day when compact discs where all the rage. Google Earth is basically an enhanced version of that, with satellite imagery, embedded photos, live updates and thousands of other features. gearth2

The satellite imagery in Google Earth varies in quality, all world cities are modeled in great detail, and in some cities it is even possible to view photorealistic 3D-buildings and sights. Google Earth also has street views, which is a 360 degree panorama of a bunch of intersections and streets in world cities such as New York, Tokyo, London and so on. Rural imagery is however limited in comparison, and is usually looks like a grey slurge with black dots. This is also true for a lot of smaller countries in Europe, such as Scandinavia. Even-though the region has one of the highest Internet penetrations in the world. It is possible to apply certain information on most map-views. For example street names, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, sights tagged by National Geographic and so on. This makes Google Earth usable when on the road, hook the program up to a GPS device and you got a neat navigational system in major cities. Google Earth is also available for the IPhone and Symbian enabled phones, such as Nokia. There is also the Google Maps application for JAVA-enabled phones, Maps is less resource intense since it contains less features than its big-brother. Google beefed up the ocean part of Google Earth in release 5. Now you can travel below the high-seas and look at ship-wrecks, Cousteau’s ocean world and so on. The maps of the ocean floor are surprisingly good, but the use for them will mainly be in educational contexts. gearth1

Another interesting feature in Google Earth 5 is the ability to turn back time by using historical maps, the maps and imagery is not that old since most views will only date back to 2000 or 2001. It is interesting to watch some cities growth but for this feature to be really useful the maps would have to go back much further. Google Earth is not just about Earth, the program also features neat views of the sky and universe. It is not as in-depth as Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope, which has superior written and video content. However for just a quick-tour of the universe Google Earth will do. gearth4

The advantage of Google Earth is the community behind it. There are several websites with interesting sights in Google Earth, and there are forums where people share what they have discovered in the Google Earth imagery. It is also possible to record your trips in Google Earth 5, share them with friends and family or save them for other occasions. Google Earth is a great piece of educational software, it tries to be a lot and succeed in many areas. However the rural map areas are not that great making Google Earth unusable as a navigational tool in some areas and countries. The sky feature is great but there are programs that simply do a better job of describing our universe.

Use Gmail effectively

Published by admin on December 14, 2008

Googles e-mail service, Gmail is one of the most popular webmail services online. Yet there are many features in Gmail that is not used, even though they will probably make you more effective and give you a better overview of your e-mails.

It is quite common to have several e-mail accounts, for example from your ISP or maybe one for your blog or website. In Gmail you can connect all those accounts to your Gmail, which means that you can get an overview of all your email accounts from one account. Click “Settings” in the upper right corner and then click the “Accounts “-tab, choose “Add another mail account”. A form will appear where you fill out the login details for your external e-mail. Check “Label incoming messages” and Gmail will label the incoming messages from that account. It is possible to add up to five accounts. Sometimes you might want Gmail to forward your messages, for example to a work-email. In the settings menu, click the “Forwarding” tab and then choose to forward your mails to an address of your choice. Many users of Gmail do not know that it is possible to use keyboard shortcuts to create an effective workflow. This setting is not on by default, in the settings menu click the “General tab” and then choose “Keyboard shortcuts on”, voila!

Some common shortcuts: c Create new e-mail u Return to your inbox r Reply a Reply all Ctrl + s Save draft For more shortcuts turn to the Gmail help section. If you get loads of e-mail it can be interesting to know if a message needs to be opened ASAP or if it can wait. One way of knowing is by using the “Personal level indicators” in Gmail. If a message has been sent to your address among others an arrow will appear in front of it. If the message was sent to your address solely two arrows will appear. This feature can be activated in the “General” –tab in the Settings menu. Sometimes it is neat to have your Gmail in your mobile phone; this can easily be done by downloading the Gmail mobile client (by pointing your mobile web-browser to: http://gmail.com/app). The client is a small application that installs on a cell phone, when you run the client it will connect to the Internet through using the phone and retrieve the latest e-mails. Since it is possible to connect any pop3 e-mail account to Gmail you can have all your e-mails available from anywhere. It can be a security risk to surf the web using public networks, such as wireless networks in cafes or airports. However Gmail can be protected by turning on the https feature in. Https will encrypt your connection to the Gmail server. This can be turned on in the Settings menu under the “General”-tab. It is recommended having it on all the time, even if you are not surfing public networks (better to be safe than sorry).

My Ubuntu Experience Part 6: Let’s wrap it up

Published by Daniel Westerstal on October 1, 2008

It is now finally time to wrap up the My Ubuntu Experience series, and it is not easy. After using Ubuntu for almost a year I must have come to some sort of conclusion, in fact it is my duty. Ubuntu is a great operating system and is certainly a breath of fresh air for an avid Windows user. But it’s a little bit like a buying a new car and then realizing that it is just the same as your old one. The real difference from Windows is of course that Ubuntu is free. Think of it this way, when you buy a new PC a percentage of the price you are paying will be for the operating system (Windows). If you buy your PC from a large manufacturer such as HP or Dell it will in most cases be packed with software you just want out the door, and Windows. Ubuntu does what Windows does, and it also comes with software that people would want to use. It already got an office suite, a drawing program and a great e-mail client. So if you were a first-time computer buyer or PC-user Ubuntu would be great. But most users are not. I have spent years building my software library for Windows, why should I go and throw all my expensive software out the door and move to Ubuntu? Exactly, there is no real compelling reason if I already have a working Windows computer with all the software I need. There are areas where Ubuntu however can take market shares, the first one being schools. Why should a school pay high license fees to Microsoft when they can get it all for free? Another area where Ubuntu will excel is secondary computers. Most advanced users have several computers, for example I have a laptop. I always take it with me on business trips, when I am on the road all I need is an Office suite, Internet and security. A third area where Ubuntu probably be popular is in markets where Microsoft has not achieved market dominance. For example in new economies and third world countries. For initiatives such as OLPC Ubuntu will make a great operating system. It is clear that Ubuntu can fill voids in the market, and will probably also do some good in the process. As of right now it is not a complete replacement for Microsoft Windows, but that might change.

My Ubuntu Experience Part 5: Is Ubuntu more secure?

Published by Daniel Westerstal on September 9, 2008

Security is getting more and more important. We have all heard the security problems Windows XP, Internet Explorer, Quick Time and many other programs have been experiencing. By many people Ubuntu and Linux is regarded as more secure than Windows, if it is the truth I don't know. One thing that need to be understood is that far more computers (and I mean far more) are running Windows than Linux, so malware and viruses are often by default designed to attack Windows-based computers rather than Linux-ones. The Windows user-base might also be less tech-savvy than the persons using Linux, a lot of family computers are running Windows. So what security features does Ubuntu use? I would say that the real difference between Ubuntu and Windows XP is the user account management. In Ubuntu you do not have administrator rights by default as in XP, which means that viruses trying to take over your computer will not be able to without your account password. Windows Vista has a similar feature, User Account Control. UAC was attacked by users and media for being annoying and in the way when installing software and configuring computers. Ubuntu also has an equialent of UAC, it prompts for you to enter a password every time you want to configure something, however it is not as frequent as UAC in Windows. UAC and similar features are probably the best security measure that any computer can have, it really makes life harder for hackers and malware. But requiring the user to enter a password each-time is a bit over the top I think, creating a password free UAC is something Ubuntu should borrow from Vista. All current Linux distributions have a firewall on a kernel level, it is called iptables. Iptables is an old style Linux product which does not include a GUI and it is pretty hard to configure and always allows everything by default. There are utilities to help you though, Lokkit is probably the easiest and most straightforward one. There is also one called Firestarter, which is an easy alternative. If you are already behind a firewall there is no reason to worry too much about Ubuntu's lack of a firewall, but if you are using a laptop on the road or have your computer connected directly to the Internet you will want one.

A common Linux legend is that you do not need any anti-virus program because Linux is engineered so it is hard for viruses to run in the first place. But if you have files being used on Windows computers you will still want anti-virus. Even though infected files will have a hard time infecting your computer, the system will carry the virus to the next Windows computer. Obviously if you are using a dual-boot setup it will be needed even more. There is open-source virus software, ClamAV. It seems very capable, but I went with AVG Free Edition for Linux just because I use it in Windows Vista and it's great. AVG for Linux doesn't do much else than detect viruses and scan for them. It can't heal files, which is a bit weird but at least you know you are infected. As you already know Ubuntu is open-source. In the media it is often said that open source is more secure than closed source. Some argue that open source applications are more secure since a large community has been able to test the code and find exploits. Obviously it can also pose a security threat if the community does not find the exploits and bugs first, so there are really two sides of the coin and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Using Ubuntu feels more secure, from a security perspective it is better engineered than Windows so at least you can relax somewhat. One should however be clear that threats directed towards Linux-computers will increase as Linux become more and more popular.

My Ubuntu Experience Part 4: Using IPods and Printers in Linux

Published by Daniel Westerstal on August 31, 2008

One of the main problems when upgrading to any new OS is to get the peripherals to work. Microsoft took a lot of heat when people could not get their printers, network cards and what not to work with Vista. In my world drivers are the main responsibility of the device manufacturer and not the provider of the operating system, with that in mind I will not bash Ubuntu completely for the lack of drivers in the Linux community. To my desktop I have a Canon MP450 multi-functional printer, an external hard drive and my IPod. I also use USB-thumb drives and two digital cameras on a regular basis. Using the Canon MP450 original software was out of the question since it requires Windows. To get the printer to actual print is impossible. Ubuntu recognized the Canon MP450 and displayed it as an available printer, but when you send print jobs to it nothing happens. I went to the Canon website trying to find some drivers for Linux, no luck. After some poking around the net I finally found a working driver called TurboPrint. TurboPrint is actually commercial software and costs 29.95 Euros; you can however try it for 30 days. Since the MP450 is a multi-functional printer I thought it would be nice if the scanning worked. Ubuntu comes with a pretty neat program called Xsane Image Scanner. Xsane recognized the MP450 and I was able to scan, it even worked faster and was more efficient than the software that came with the printer. With the original Windows software you had to scan the images to an image-editing program, it slowed the process down dramatically. In Xsane it is possible to get previews of the scanned image and edit the scanned results. The external hard drive and other USB-storage devices worked surprisingly well. When you connect a thumb drive an icon will appear on your desktop, it could not be easier. When I briefly used Linux several years back I remember USB support being very limited, if it worked at all. It is great to see that the Linux-community has worked those problems out. Getting my Ipod to work with Ubuntu is a different story. When connecting it a small Ipod-icon appear on the desktop, if the Ipod is formatted using FAT32 instead of HFS plus it is possible to manage MP3-files just as any other USB storage device. But the strength with the IPod is ITunes, and since Apple has not made a version for Linux you will not be able to use it. Tough luck, but there are a few Linux alternatives. One of them is gtkpod, which claims to be a GUI for iPods. The program keeps track of your songs, ratings but more importantly has the ability to import and read your ITunes DB from the IPod. Obviously the whole IPod process is not as easy as in Windows or OS X. Of course Apple has no real interest in releasing a Linux version of ITunes, when looking at the market share Linux is not that far behind from OS X. For Apples perspective it probably makes sense not to give the Linux community ITunes, Linux might even catch-up. A main-usage for many family computers is online-banking. Many banks have platform-independent solutions, such as dongles generating passkeys. They will work with Linux; some banks have other solutions such as card-readers or certain programs that needs to be installed. Chances are that many of them are not compatible with Linux, so before moving over to Ubuntu it might be good to check with your bank. In the old days most devices had problems with Linux and were lacking drivers. It is clear that there have been improvements since then, most devices actually worked somewhat. However it is also evident that there are still more work to be done, the real question is however who is going to do the work. Most hardware manufacturers are not providing Linux-drivers for their devices, some will never do it. Why? Because Linux is still a small operating system compared to Windows. Other device manufacturers, like Apple will probably not provide working software and drivers since Linux is a competitor to their own OS X. I think that drivers and getting devices to work is the main obstacle for Linux to reach popularity and a sizeable market-share.

My Ubuntu Experience Part 3: GNOME vs Windows

Published by Daniel Westerstal on August 22, 2008

The interface in Ubuntu is actually not Ubuntu but GNOME. For those of you who don't know the Linux world is divided into two major graphical user interfaces (GNOME and KDE) and one minor, XFCE. No matter if you choose SuSE, Mandrake or Ubuntu you will most likely use GNOME or KDE. Basically the kernel, software-updates and packaging is what is Ubuntu, not the desktop interface itself. However the Ubuntu team implements the desktop theme and decides on which packages (applications) and drivers that should be included by default.

So what are the main differences between Windows Vista and GNOME? Well first off there are three "start-menus" instead of one (Applications, Places and System). They are by default in the top-bar of the desktop, the open applications are in the bottom. Naturally you can move around the menus to make them suit your needs, windows-users might wanna move the three menus to the bottom location for better windows-resemblence.

Other than the default-layout there are few real differences between Windows and GNOME. However there is one neat feature in GNOME that Windows does not have, the ability to use different workspaces. When running out of room on the desktop in Windows the only option is to add another display. However in GNOME you just move to another workspace using the same screen, very neat. It is very odd that Microsoft have not implemented this feature in Vista, both GNOME, KDE and Apple OS X has workspaces.

I like the three menus instead of one giant menu, it is easier to navigate depending on what you want to do. For example if I just want to open my word-processor I don't want to try distingushing it from a number of other applications. The applications menu in Ubuntu is divided in Accessories, Games, Graphics, Internet, Office and Sound&Video. The Places menu is where you have shortcuts to Music, Pictures, different drives and the ability to search. All configuration and maintenace is done using the System-menu, there are also some fairly large help sections about GNOME and Ubuntu.

Windows Aero was apparently more for show than for real use, the Ubuntu team actually developed some 3D effects of their own to counter. If you turn up the detail level (System->Preferences->Apperance->Visual Effects) you will be able to see windows moving around like the wind and little ripple effects when you click something. The effects are not turned on by default. If you change from one workspace to another you will get a nice little cube-effect, how cool is that? The Apperance section also gives you the ability to change themes, fonts and general icons.

Desktop search is all the rage these days, Google and Microsoft is gearing up to own the search-engine on your desktop. GNOME is however way behind. First of all the search-engine is located in (Places->Search), so basically I have to click my way down to find it. It could have been placed somewhere more prominent, how about where the name of the current computer user is. After all most users will probably know their name after all? Second the search-engine is slow, and resembles the horrible search functionality seen in Windows XP. It is impossible to search for shortcuts in the applications menu, and you can't just start a program by entering the first three letters of it as in Windows Vista.

There is a "Show desktop" -icon in GNOME, and it has a much better place than in Windows. If you click the lower left corner the system will hide all currently open windows and show the desktop. Also the recycle bin has a more prominent position in GNOME, in the lower right corner. Overall the effects in Windows Vista has a much better look than in GNOME, especially together with Dreamscene. But GNOME seems more productive in its layout, I love the extra workspaces and placement of stuff often used. When it comes to desktop search GNOME is way behind Windows Vista, I actually miss the simple and fast search-functionality in Vista a lot.

Freemind – Free mind mapping software

Published by Daniel Westerstal on July 9, 2008

There are advantages of doing mind-maps on the computer instead of using whiteboards or pencil and paper. It’s easier to keep structured, you never run out of room and it’s possible to link images and other objects.

While there are loads of proprietary software out there just for mind-mapping (MindManager, SmartDraw to name a few) there are few open-source or free alternatives. FreeMind is perhaps the most well known alternative.

The software is written in JAVA, which means excellent portability across platforms. FreeMind runs in any Java environment but most notable Windows, Linux and MAC OS. FreeMind is released under the GNU Public License (GPL).

My first experience with FreeMind was very confusing, the program interface actually resembles a 90s version of Micrografx Graph (those were the days). After a couple of minutes the interface feels less awkward and three days later it almost feels like a part of you.

Click the yellow light-bulb to add sub-topics to your main subject, FreeMind dubs it ”Child Note”.To change the text of something just click it and write. Out to the left there are a bunch of icons that can be used in connection with each note. For example if you want to set priorities use the stylish 1-5 icons. However I don’t get why there is a Linux penguin but not a plus-sign in there.

In FreeMind you can also create links to other objects (websites, files you name it) and insert pictures. A more powerful feature is the planning tools that aren’t directly visible, such as the calendar where you can set reminders. FreeMind can generate a schedule of all the events and reminders, which actually makes it possible to create plans directly from a mind-map.

FreeMind has a pretty active community behind it supporting the software and adding plug-ins. For example it’s possible to download a plug-in that connects FreeMind to MS Project, any project manager’s dream. There are also plug-ins that interacts with content management systems, such as Drupal or MediaWiki.

The program also has excellent export features; you can export as PDF (not even Microsoft Visio 2007 has that functionality built-in), PNG, SVG among other formats. It’s even possible to create HTML mind-maps, which makes FreeMind a great tool for web or Intranet use.

At first glance FreeMind doesn’t look like much, but it really has great functionality and features in there. The graphics are a bit dated, but it doesn’t matter because FreeMind is good at what it was originally designed to do.

ZoneAlarm

Published by Daniel Westerstal on February 12, 2008

Protecting your computer connected to the Internet is standard procedure as trojans and worms are floating around. ZoneAlarm is a free firewall (in its basic version) for home users that’s been around a while. It features basic firewall functionality and a stealth capability, which means that your computer is invisible to others on the Internet. ZoneAlarm has five different tabs; Overview, Firewall, Program Control, Anti-virus monitoring and Alerts & Logs. In the overview tab you will see the total of”intrusion attempts” direct towards your computer, it also shows the number of programs secured for outbound protection. If you view the firewall tab you can set the Internet Zone Security to high, medium and low. In high-mode ZoneAlarm goes in to stealth mode, in medium your computer becomes visible. It’s also possible to set the security level within your own network or trusted zone. The program can be quite irritating to setup the first time. Every application has to be given rights to the Internet, for example if you start Internet Explorer ZoneAlarm will pop-up and ask you if you want to give IE access. In the later versions of ZoneAlarm the program tries to auto-detect certain programs such as web-browsers and give them access. It doesn’t work for every application though. ZoneAlarm is also one of the more secure and effective firewalls out there (when this is written). One drawback however is that it isn’t as light-weight as it used to be, it does take up more system resources than previous versions. ZoneAlarm is a neat free firewall, it has all the features that a home user needs and it works great with Windows Vista.

TrueCrypt

Published by Daniel Westerstal on January 30, 2008

Data protection is all the rage these days, and you can’t be too careful. TrueCrypt is an open source alternative to a number of encryption programs out there. Actually the program is based on E4M (Encryption for the Masses) released in 1997 and discontinued in 2000.In order to store encrypted data TrueCrypt uses system volumes, the program basically creates a password protected and encrypted volume. If you provide the right password the volume is unlocked and you can use it as any other volume on your computer. The program has a number of encryption algorithms you can use including; AES, Serpent and Twofish. All of the encryption algorithms are standards with AES being the most widespread one. If you want an extra layer of security it’s possible to create volumes that requires two-factor authentication using a keyfile. In order to unlock the volume both a password and a special keyfile is needed. Creating a new volume is done using a simple and easy wizard, almost any user can do it. Mounting a volume (which needs to be done every time you restart the computer or dismounts the volume) is also easy. It’s a matter of choosing a volume file and clicking “mount” . It is entirely possible to have 250 GB of data or more encrypted and use it as any other normal volume, you can even install programs on your encrypted volume. TrueCrypt has the ability to run in traveler mode, which means that the program does not have to be installed on the OS it runs. This means that it is possible to take TrueCrypt with you on trips using a USB-stick, so you can bring business secrets on the road without having to worry about the data getting into the wrong hands. The program also comes with a number of language packs, as always with Open Source software these kind of packs differ in quality and translation. Also with a fairly straightforward program like TrueCrypt there is no need for language packs.