Online 2D to 3D conversion

Make a three-dimensional "fly around" model out of a plain 2D image with Make3D, a Stanford University service based on an algorithm created by Stanford students Andrew Ng, Ashutosh Saxena and Min Sun.

Make3D produces a 3D model gives viewers access to a picture's depth and range of points of view. Photos can be uploaded from users' hard disks or pulled into the site from Flickr.

Sign up for the service here or read a more detailed article on Make3D here.

Excerpts:

"The algorithm uses a variety of visual cues that humans use for estimating the 3-D aspects of a scene," said Ashutosh Saxena, a doctoral student in computer science who developed the Make3d website with Andrew Ng, an assistant professor of computer science. "If we look at a grass field, we can see that the texture changes in a particular way as it becomes more distant."

...On the Make3d website, the algorithm puts images uploaded by users into a processing queue and will send an e-mail when the model has been rendered. Users can then vote on whether the model looks good, and can see an alternative rendering and even tinker with the model to fix what might not have been rendered right the first time...

Samples of resulting 3D models (vids):

Make3D automatically converts an image into a 3D model

The video above shows an output of Make3D.

Make3D is a Stanford University service that creates a three-dimensional "fly around" model out of a two-dimensional image. The resulting 3D model gives viewers access to a picture's depth and range of points of view.

Make3D is based on an algorithm created by Stanford students Andrew Ng, Ashutosh Saxena, and Min Sun -- the algorithm that won the best paper award at the International Conference on Computer Vision's 3D recognition and reconstruction workshop in Rio de Janeiro in October 2007.

Sign up for the service or view sample galleries here.

Download website audios and videos with this light Firefox add-on

Introducing UnPlug, a Firefox add-on that lets you download audios or videos embedded on a webpage.

It works with a lot of video sharing websites including Youtube, iFilm, Current.tv, Revver.com, Peekvid.com, Google Video, and Mobuzztv.com. I've been using it for some time now and it works even with ordinary websites with videos and audios.

From the official Unplug site:

UnPlug scans web pages and tells you where things like media players and other embedded objects are getting their data from, and displays it as a simple hyperlink: in most cases, you can then follow the simple download link to save the media file.

Common video or file formats Unplug downloads include Flash video (.flv), MMS links (mms://), RealMedia (.rm, .ram), and RSTP links (rstp://) .

Unplug does not support Safari or Internet Explorer.

Boost your MP3's volume with MP3Gain

MP3Gain is cross-platform open source software created to analyze MP3 files and to adjust them to so desired perceived volume. It functions similarly to what an audio normalizer does, but unlike typical normalization MP3Gain does not modify the music data. The program calculates a volume adjustment to yield lossless audio volume increase as it adjusts the mp3 file directly, without decoding and re-encoding.

MP3Gain is not designed to simply look at the peak volume and adjust the file accordingly. Instead, it does statistical analysis to determine how loud a file actually sounds to the human ear. It does this by changing the scale factor for each MP3 frame.

So for your "variegated-sounding" audio files, try MP3Gain.

AoA Audio Extractor

It's a freeware and it gets the job done.

AoA Audio Extractor is an application developed for extracting audio, music, or sound from video files in AVI, MPEG, MPG, FLV (Flash Video), DAT, WMV, MOV, MP4, and 3GP formats. Fast and easy to use, this handy tool saves extracted audio as MP3, WAV, and AC3 files.

AoA Audio Extractor's interface has the look and feel of a media player. It allows users to Simply add video files through a traditional browse dialog box. Choosing an output option is as easy as pressing a radio button. Output bit rates, sample rate, and channels can be easily configured through pull-down menus.

It extracts and saves audio files almost instantaneously. There's not much added features as they aren't necessary. AoA Audio Extractor is great as it is. Novices would love its user-friendliness while advanced users would get drawn to its speed and reliability.

I use AoA Audio Extractor to take sample music and rare audios from Youtube and other video sharing websites.

The Chinese eye test

If you can't read any message in the image above, try viewing it with "Chinese eyes." Pull the corners of your eyes (think Chinese chink eyes) and view the image again.

Answers.com

I don't know why it seems only a few (of the people I know) uses Answers.com in surfing the web. It is one of the best resources the Internet has to offer!

Answers.com is comprehensive and it displays a wide range of info from various sources (most of which are authoritative). There's a downloadable Answers.com utility for desktops and a Firefox add-on that really does great serving as an online research assistant. With Answers.com, you have a dictionary, encyclopedia, media items, and access to a variety of online resources.

1-Click Answers: The Answers.com add-on for Firefox

1-Click Answers TM will save you even more time with AnswerTips that instantly deliver the information you are looking for. Just point at any word, hold the Alt key (Ctrl in Linux) and click. Upon letting go, an AnswerTip in the form of a pop-up "information bubble" appears on the screen explaining the term.

Download the Answers add-on for Firefox here.

Featured link: Braingle

Get brain teasers, riddles, trivia, brain exercises, games, forums and more at Braingle.com.

It's a daily habit for me. I enjoy most of the user contributed brain twisters featured in the site.

Enjoy interacting with others in the comments sections:)

Techno and gadget addiction

UK researchers warn about growing tech addiction. Techno and gadget addiction can become too distracting that one has to wake up several times at night or skip work just to check emails and text messages.

Professor Nada Kakabadse of Northampton University says it can even interfere with an "addict's"job as he feels he has to be linked up all the time.

Professor Kakabadse together with her team is conducting research on how widespread the addiction can be. A small-scale study of 360 people suggested that up to a third were addicted to their gadgets or tech items.

Kakabadse says: "People could become addicted to just about anything."

"We are creatures of habit and we can get addicted to quite unusual things.

"Technology has become much more interesting over the past 10 years with the internet and everything.

"It is much simpler and much more portable which makes it more accessible.

"You would be surprised how many people had their PDA or Blackberry next to their bed heads."

"Those who are addicted will get up in the middle of the night and pick up messages on their PDAs two or three times a night."

It was found that the addiction could lead to relationships problems as the "addict" became more and more withdrawn from their families. Other negative social consequences also include anxieties and sickness.

The conducted research suggested that in the early stages of addiction, workers were often very productive, replying to e-mails and messages, but as time went on there were more serious consequences. Professor Kakabadse says some people are very anxious not having their gadgets next to them and it was often difficult to detect when someone had become an addict.

Somehow implied in the research is a call to put warnings to on all gadgets. Professor Kakabadse adds that employers should provide training on the safe use of technological devices they provide their staff.

Feature-rich customizable desktop calendar

It's called Rainlendar.

This platform independent application runs on both Windows and Linux and you can have it for free (Lite version). Simple and easy to use, it does not take up a lot of desktop space. Users can also customize it or place its panels anywhere on the desktop. Several skins and language versions are available.

Rainlendar may be used with other calendar applications as it uses the standard iCalendar format to store events and tasks. This enables users to easily transfer event and task details between applications. Users can also subscribe to online calendars and see Outlook (Pro only) appointments directly in Rainlendar.

Rainlendar has three basic panels: the calendar, to-do list, and events. All these panels may be set to varying levels of transparency. They are so designed to give users convenient access to information on appointments or events at one glance. Different events can have a different appearance in the calendar and to-do and event lists, making it easy to spot the important events from the others. Calendar icons may also be set to make it easier to separate events.

There's an alarm feature in Rainlendar to make sure things to do and important events are not easily missed or overlooked. Get advance alerts for events and tasks.

Events and tasks in Rainlendar may also be printed in a list or a month view. Moreover, a search feature makes it easy to locate certain task or event details when there's just too many of them.

I don't know what's with the name but definitely, Rainlendar is an app worth downloading and using. Get it here.

Painting discs blu and kicking HD DVD some more

And so the Blu-Ray format wins.

Toshiba's HD DVD is down and the kicks keep coming. Now, even known partners and ardent supporters of the HD DVD format are swearing allegiance to the Blu-Ray.

Toshiba has already released an official statement stating the end of the road for the HD DVD. A day after this, Universal Pictures Digital adopted the Blu-Ray format along with various other companies and retailers.

Amazon.com announced that it will support Blu-Ray. Its statement says: “The high-definition landscape is rapidly changing … In order to best serve our customers, Amazon is recommending Blu-Ray as the preferred digital format and will continue to carry the ‘Earth’s Largest selection’ of Blu-Ray products.”

One week prior to Toshiba’s official announcement, Netflix announced preference for the Blu-Ray format. The company says: "There is absolutely nothing wrong with having one single format, as this would only ease the customer’s choice and bring clarity to the consumer. Netflix has offered both formats, ever since the beginnings of HD DVDs in 2006, but decided it is time to move on and look forward to what this change could mean for the adoption of high-definition in general."

Since the beginning of this year, a number of retailers already decided to adopt the Blu-Ray, including Woolworths and Wal-Mart. Toshiba lost as the Sony hot item rapidly becomes a market favorite.

Nevertheless, a few companies express ‘everlasting’ support for the HD DVD. LG said it will continue to develop players compatible with this format, despite Toshiba’s Tuesday announcement, in a statement issued to Pocket-lint: “LG believes that at this present moment in time, it is necessary to provide a player which supports both formats and therefore create simplicity and convenience for the existing HD DVD consumer.”

Yahoo! still alive...and Buzzing

Having decided to reject the Microsoft buyout offer, one of the Internet's leading and best known companies is set to launch a new service later this month. It's called "Buzz" - a tracker for news items picked by user voting and search trends.

Valleywag says the service is opening up small, about 100 or so publishers, until the Summer before making it available to all the sites. The service shall be introduced on February 26, a Tuesday.

Yahoo! "Buzz" seems to combine the web gem finding opportunities that goes alongside user search trends and user voting in services like Digg, Propeller, and Reddit.

According to Yahoo! spokeswoman Kelley Podboy:

Yahoo! Buzz is part of a new initiative we are testing to surface interesting content from around the Web. We will be sharing more details of the initiative in the coming weeks. Ongoing product innovation is important to Yahoo! And we continue to test various products and services to gain valuable feedback and insights from our users.


Screenshot:

Microsoft introduces 2 new full-size wireless mice

Microsoft Hardware offers a full-size wireless mouse with a portable snap-in transceiver. It's big enough for a desktop computer but portable and flexible enough for an on-the-go setup with a laptop. Another new model, the Wireless Laser Mouse 7000, comes with a recharging station and a blinking green light that signals when charging is complete. Both models are designed with fast-working laser technology, a one-touch magnifier, and a tilt wheel.

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Microsoft's new full-size wireless mouse, called the Microsoft Mobile Memory Mouse 8000, features a portable snap-in transceiver that's big enough for a desktop computer but flexible enough for an on-the-go setup with a laptop. Its transceiver has a 1 GB Flash Memory that enables it to free up USB ports for the quick backing up and transfer of files. It is designed to work on the 2.4-gigahertz frequency and costs $50.




















The Wireless Laser Mouse 7000, on the other hand, is an advanced ergonomic 2.4 GHz Wireless mouse designed to provide a more comfortable and responsive computing experience. It's portable and it comes with a recharging station and a blinking green light that lets you know when the charge is complete. It costs $70.

Yahoo! Bill, it's a no

Desperate Microsoft so badly wanted to give Google a toughie competition that it sent out an unsolicited offer to acquire Yahoo! for $31 per share. Everybody had their piece to say. The antitrust regulators were a factor. But Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang says it's a no.

Presented below is the text of an email sent by Yahoo Inc. CEO Jerry Yang to employees on Feb. 11. He explains the company's decision to rebuff Microsoft's buyout bid.

Subject: our board's decision

yahoos

as you'll see from the news release we issued today, our board of directors has reviewed microsoft's unsolicited proposal with yahoo!'s management, financial and legal advisors. after a careful evaluation, the board has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of yahoo! and our stockholders. of course, the board of directors is continuously evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for stockholders.

we believe microsoft's proposal substantially undervalues yahoo!—including our highly recognizable global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms, future growth prospects, our ability to generate free cash flow and our earnings potential as well as substantial unconsolidated investments (like alibaba and yahoo! japan).

you deserve the credit for the tremendously valuable business we have built. all of us in management, as well as the members of the board, deeply appreciate and respect what you have done and continue to do in order to maintain and enhance yahoo!'s leadership position in the online world.

we have been very deliberate about the steps we are taking to position yahoo!. we are putting in place the pieces we need to accelerate growth by becoming a leading starting point for users and the must buy for advertisers. the global online advertising market is projected to grow from $45 billion in 2007 to $75 billion in 2010, and our more focused strategies position us to capture an even larger share of this market. we are moving to take advantage of this unique window of time in the growth of the online advertising market to build market share and to create value for stockholders.

several key assets form a solid foundation as we execute this strategy.

first, our global brand is a tremendous base from which to build leadership as the starting point for internet use: yahoo! is one of the most recognizable and admired brands in the world. we have some 500 million users (1 out of every 2 internet users worldwide). in the u.s., we are #1 in personalized home pages, mail, music, news, sports, shopping and travel. yahoo! also is #1 in time spent on our sites, an increasingly important metric for marketers.

second, our substantial operating cash flow, which we expect to grow in the double digits in 2009, gives us the financial flexibility to execute our plans.

third, we have made important investments in our core computing infrastructure that provides us greater scalability and increases the rate of iteration on core technologies like algorithmic search as much as tenfold. and of course, you're familiar with our investments in enhanced search technology through panama.

these assets—the brand, the audience, the financial strength, and the technology—position us to capitalize on this pivotal moment for yahoo! and the online marketplace. of course, our most important resource is you: the thousands of creative, passionate and committed yahoos who are executing our strategies to deliver value for users, advertisers, publishers—and stockholders.

as you know, we have taken significant steps to refocus our business on our starting point—must buy strategies. and we're making headway.

starting points: our goal is to grow visits to key yahoo! starting points and properties, by approximately 15% per year over the next several years. and we're on the move: we are the most visited site in the u.s., and the number of u.s. users grew strongly in the double-digits in 2007 on our yahoo.com home page alone. as our open platform takes shape it will significantly accelerate that growth.

mobile, as an area of focus, is the biggest emerging starting point in the world. with twice as many mobile users as personal computer users and projections for substantial advertising growth in mobile, we have an important competitive edge as the number one mobile destination in the u.s. and we are building a superior mobile experience for yahoo! users to further capitalize on this opportunity.

must buy: at the same time, we will increasingly make online advertising easier and more effective for marketers, opening up new ways for them to address consumers. our right media exchange, acquired last year, is more open and easy to use, simplifying transactions for buyers and sellers of online ad inventory. another 2007 acquisition, blue lithium, brings us best in class performance marketing. while we've historically tracked the success of our ad business by focusing on metrics related to our owned and operated sites, our goal is to increase the percentage of the total online advertising demand we touch—to 20% of our addressable market over the next several years, from an estimated 15% in 2007.

our newspaper consortium, is a great example. it has grown to more than 600 newspapers, up from just 264 just seven months ago. combined with ebay, comcast, at&t and others, we are creating a valuable, unique network of premium sites to serve our advertisers.

our key strategies will be enhanced by our adoption of platforms that welcome third party developers and encourage new applications that will enrich the user experience.

finally, beyond our core strategies, there's the added benefit of our substantial, unconsolidated investments in china and japan: we have major positions in yahoo! japan, the leader in its market and alibaba, which is strongly positioned in china, a market with enormous growth potential.

we have accomplished a great deal in a very short time. yahoo! is a faster-moving, better organized, more nimble company well on its way to transforming the experiences of its users, advertisers, publishers and developers.

i hope you are as proud as i am of the yahoo! we have built and we continue to build. thanks for your hard work.

jerry

Diet soda may not be a dieting option after all

A new study reveals that calorie-conscious consumers who go for diet sodas may gain more weight than if they were to consume sugary drinks. The culprit: artificial sweeteners.

Casting doubt on the benefits of low-calorie sweeteners, a Purdue University study released Sunday in the Behavioral Neuroscience journal reported that rats on diets containing the artificial sweetener saccharin gained more weight than rats given sugary food.

The study hints at the idea that artificial sweeteners alter a person's metabolism.

In the Purdue study, the rats whose diets contained artificial sweeteners appeared to experience a physiological connection between sweet tastes and calories, which drove them to overeat. The "mismatch" in caloric number and sweet taste seems to change the brain's chemistry. It seems typically with sweet foods that metabolism revs up.

Diet soft drinks is the second-most-popular low-calorie, sugar-free products in the United States according to a consumer survey from the Calorie Control Council. This recent study would definitely come as a surprie to the 59% of Americans who consume diet soft drinks.

Though further research needs or need to be undertaken, it is advisable for consumers to lessen consumption of artificially sweetened food and beverages. The Purdue study definitely goes beyond the diet soda connection.

Basic digital art tools

So you do web design, image editing, or occasional digital design tinkering. I bet you need a digital ruler and color picker.

You will definitely encounter the need to determine distances between two points on your screen. And unless you have memorized all html color codes, you need something to tell you what a certain color's corresponding code is. Precision or even proximity are factors. The following tools should be useful.

Rulers

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JR Screen Ruler

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The JR Screen Ruler is a tool that enables you to accurately measure anything on your screen. It does measurements for graphics, web page browser sizes, and more. It displays distances in pixels, inches, picas or centimeters.

WonderWebware.com Screen Ruler

This tool measures the distance between two points on your screen or on a web page in pixels, centimeters, or millimeters. It does horizontal and vertical measurements with its four-ticker, transparent interface.

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Both rulers mentioned above are light. Both do horizontal and vertical measurements. I prefer JR Screen Ruler's simplicity, excellent interface, and hotkeys (function). However, the absence of JR Screen's ability to measure lines other than verticals and horizontals makes me consider the WonderWebware Screen Ruler. WonderWebware also does (only) horizontal and vertical measurements but it offers a four-ticker, transparent interface. This easily enables a user to do a simple math procedure - solving for the hypotenuse. I haven't seen a free digital ruler that does point to point measurements other than the typical "vertically and horizontally." Solving for the hypotenuse should do the trick.

Color Picker

Pixie

Pixie is an easy-to-use, fast, and tiny utility particularly developed for web designers. It's a color picker that includes a mouse tracker. Simply point to a color, and it will tell you the hex, RGB, HTML, CMYK, and HSV values of that color.

I think this is the best stand-alone free application for working with colors. Forget the need to take screenshots or pull up a color wheel to match colors and hues. Pixie determines color values for any object you see on screen (unless you're running DOS of course). Hotkeys, moreover, make working with Pixie more comfortable. For example, Ctrl+Alt+C copies the HTML value of a current color to your Windows clipboard. For complex images, Pixie magnifies a 32-by-32 pixel area to choose a color from exactly the pixel you want. Pixie also displays the selected pixel and its corresponding X and Y coordinates.

Blurring Blu-ray's instant success

You thought HD DVD already nears its end and now you plan to get that coveted Blu-ray player because almost everybody thinks it's the "in" thing.

Well, think again.

Below are some of the reasons one CNET blog cites not to buy a Blu-ray player yet.

1. Nearly all current Blu-ray players are obsolete: The Blu-ray standard is still evolving. Most models currently available use the original Profile 1.0 standard, while some newer models use Profile 1.1 (which adds the ability to show picture-in-picture commentaries). Later this year, the first Profile 2.0 players--which add the ability to deliver online special features (BD Live)--will become available. Ironically, both of these are designed to bring the Blu-ray standard in line with HD DVD players, which have long been able to deliver these features.

A couple of the most recent Blu-ray players (the combo players from Samsung and LG) can be updated from Profile 1.0 to 1.1 with a downloadable firmware update. But the PlayStation 3 is, supposedly, the only existing Blu-ray player that will be fully upgradeable to Profile 2.0. So if you don't want your Blu-ray player to be obsolete, the PS3 is your only choice until 2.0 models--such as the Panasonic DMP-BD50--hit later this year.

Caveat: Does anybody really watch those PiP-enabled commentaries? Or want updated trailers downloaded from the Web? Beyond the hardcore cinephiles, I think the answer is a big "no." In other words, if you're among the vast majority who only wants to watch the movie, you're not really gaining anything with a 1.1. or 2.0 player. Those older Blu-ray players should play everything else on the disc (the non-playable features are just grayed out on the menu). With the older players hitting the discount racks to make way for newer models, getting a Profile 1.0 player is a nice way to score a Blu-ray player on the cheap ($300 or less).

2. Blu-ray is best on a big-screen TV: Can you see the difference between standard DVD and Blu-ray? Yes--but it may not be as noticeable as you would think. Like all high-definition material, Blu-ray discs look their most-impressive at bigger screen sizes, where DVD can sometimes start to look a bit soft. Put another way: if your TV is 37 inches or smaller, you probably won't be getting a huge advantage from Blu-ray.

Caveat: Eagle-eyed videophiles--or those who sit especially close to their 1080p TVs--may well see a difference. Rule of thumb: if HDTV programming looks noticeably better than DVD playback on your TV, then Blu-ray will be a worthwhile investment.

3. There are still very few movies available on Blu-ray: As of February 5, 2008, there are less than 450 current Blu-ray titles available in North America (not counting discontinued and adult titles). That stacks up well to HD DVD (around 400). But it's a drop in the bucket compared to standard DVD, which has at least 90,000 titles available (including TV shows).

Caveat: Sure, it's small now, but the number of Blu-ray titles is growing slowly but surely. In fact, Blu-ray and HD DVD adoption (combined) has actually outpaced that of the original DVD format, which took three or four years before it really went mainstream.

4. Blu-ray still has growing pains: How many times have you popped a brand new DVD into your player, only to be greeted with a message that you need to update the firmware to view the movie? Probably never, but Blu-ray early adopters have faced this message more than they would like to admit. (To be fair, HD DVD has had its share of disc compatibility issues as well.) To make matters worse, many early Blu-ray players can't update via Ethernet, so you'll need to burn a CD to update the player. If you're reading Crave, burning a disc probably isn't a problem--but there are many less-tech-savvy people that love DVDs, but have no idea what an ISO file is.

5. Prices have nowhere to go but down: Even without competition from HD DVD, Blu-ray prices seem to be on a one-way ticket downward. Older players can be purchased for about $300, so don't be surprised to see Black Friday 2008 specials at $249 or $199. Caveat: See item number 1: the cheaper players are likely to be older models that are effectively "obsolete."

Sot for the next couple of months (at least), getting a Blu-ray player is something not compelling or practical yet.

Japanese study finds no link between cancer and mobile phone use

Japanese scientists find no evidence to support the relationship between cerebral cancer risk and the use of mobile phones.

In a study published on Tuesday in the British Journal of Cancer, researchers led by Naohito Yamaguchi compared the history of mobile phone use in 322 brain cancer patients with 683 healthy people living in Tokyo.

"We studied the radiation emitted from various types of mobile phones and placed them into one of four categories relating to radiation strength," said Yamaguchi.

"We then analyzed how they would affect different areas of the brain, taking into account the organ's complex structure."

Yamaguchi adds that using their newly developed and more accurate techniques, there was found no association between mobile phone use and cancer, contending earlier studies that suggest boosted brain cancer risk with regular cell phone use.

Previous studies into mobile phone use have thrown up conflicting findings. The biggest investigation, which covered 420,000 people and spanned (in some cases) more than a decade of phone use, failed to find a cancer connection.

Yamaguchi's team, from the Tokyo Women's Medical University, examined patients with three types of brain cancer -- glioma, meningioma and pituitary adenoma (cases that comprise approximately 85 percent of all brain tumors.)

Several countries have guidelines such as advising the public to make shorter calls on mobile phones, use hands-free sets and let children only make essential calls in order to limit exposure to electromagnetic energy.

Leaping ahead: 2 billion-transistor computer chip from Intel

Indeed, Intel knows what it means to leap ahead. Surpassing the previous highest number of transistors packed into a computer (at 1.7 billion), Intel is set to deliver the first computer chip with two billion transistors.

The company announced on Monday that it has created a two-billion-transistor computer chip expected to offer supercomputers "a leap in performance and capabilities."

It is a new Itanium brand chip, codenamed "Tukwila," designed for supercomputers. Tukwila increases the power of computers more than twofold and will be available near the end of the year. Intel says this "quad core" chip is built with four processors that share computing workloads.

"The quad-core chip is coupled with higher bandwidths and large caches to enable a doubling in performance of Tukwila over the current Intel Itanium 9100 series processor," the Santa Clara, California, company said in a release.

Intel is the world's largest maker of microprocessors.

Miniature and Efficient Technology

The new Intel chip furthers the trend seen in many modern processors of consuming lower power.

Here are excerpts of BBC's interview with Intel officers.

"That's very much a reflection of the market place demands," said Justin Ratner, chief technology officer of the firm.

He said that firms that used the chips demanded more performance and were willing to trade power to get it.

"These chips go into a quite a unique market place," he said.

The firm will also show off a chip designed for ultra-mobile devices, known as Silverthorne.

The processor is based on the firms latest transistor technology which contains features just 45 nanometres (billionth of a metre) wide.

Tukwila is based on 65 nanometre technology.

"[Using 65nm technology] reflects the design time involved in that processor," Mr Ratner told BBC News.

Both chips will be shown off at the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) in San Francisco.

Introducing...Vitamin Beer

A Filipino concocts a Vitamin B enriched beer that took center stage during the gathering of members of the International Federation of Inventors Association in Bangkok, Thailand.

Filipino inventor, Billy Malang, created a healthy beer that was sure to draw a crowd. A previous study has found health benefits in beer and this new development serves "another reason to drink."

Malang says: "All clear beers have no vitamins. It (sic) just contains alcohol, which is converted to sugar which gives you a big tummy, called the beer belly. So I brought back the Vitamin B to make beer a healthier habit."

Malang was one of the inventors from 27 countries who featured more than new 150 inventions in the Bangkok gathering. Other inventions featured include chopsticks that double as a toothbrush and a hi-tech sandwich filling machine.

Vitamin Beer

A Filipino concocts a Vitamin B enriched beer that took center stage during the gathering of members of the International Federation of Inventors Association in Bangkok, Thailand.

Filipino inventor, Billy Malang, created a healthy beer that was sure to draw a crowd. A previous study has found health benefits in beer and this new development serves "another reason to drink."

Malang says: "All clear beers have no vitamins. It (sic) just contains alcohol, which is converted to sugar which gives you a big tummy, called the beer belly. So I brought back the Vitamin B to make beer a healthier habit."

Malang was one of the inventors from 27 countries who featured more than new 150 inventions in the Bangkok gathering. Other inventions featured include chopsticks that double as a toothbrush and a hi-tech sandwich filling machine.

No double dipping please

Is there any risk associated with sticking a piece of partially eaten food into a dip or salsa?

Researchers from Clemson University say yes based on a study conducted by measuring the amount of bacteria in a dip that came from the mouths of study participants.

The participants were asked to take a bite out of a cracker that they had just scooped up with dip. After performing the double dip eight times, the study found that the a few extra ingredients in the dip - unwanted and unhealthy ingredients.

"Yes, you have a lot of bacteria on your skin and more in your mouth," said Joanne Konschak, director of infectious disease control of South Jersey Healthcare. "(For most bacteria) the dip becomes a breeding ground they can use to feed off."

XNote Stopwatch

Here's one for the time-conscious.

It's a small and useful tool that does what it's meant to do. It works as an alarm clock, stop watch, and countdown timer. It's called XNote Stopwatch and it's impressively light and fast. You can have it for free -- just bear with the nag screen.

Publisher's description

From dnSoft Research Group:

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XNote Stopwatch is a multifunctional digital-stopwatch and countdown timer utility for your computer's desktop. The program features both count-up and count-down modes, an alarm with various events, a resizable display with always-on-top mode, system-wide hot keys, time snapping (split/lap time feature), save/load support, time rewinding, and decimals customization. XNote Stopwatch has a digital display similar to real stopwatches and clocks. Moreover, it can be resized to achieve your preferable size of digits and even be switched to a compact state, in which the stopwatch/timer doesn't show controls and stays on top of your desktop.

My notes:

• The publisher does not mention XNote being an alarm clock. Well, you can actually make it one. Xnote has a feature that enables audio playing or the launching of applications after a countdown. Just configure the feature to set your alarm.
• Set hotkeys to easily control XNote.
  
• Eeasily resize XNote (compact mode) and place it anywhere on your screen.
• You can simultaneously run several XNote timers or stopwatches on your screen.
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Jump for temporary clogged nose relief

Whenever the cold hits me and that annoying clogged nose part starts to set it, I jump.

Frantically, I jump.

I jump and hop till I get that temporary clogged nose relief. After feeling an increase in heartbeat and breathing rate, nasal passages start clearing up. Breathing becomes easier though there could be some panting. I start feeling a bit comfortable..

I don't have scientific explanations yet but the jump technique really works for me.

Faster flash from Micron and Intel

Flash is fast--and could be faster.

Running up to five times faster, a new flash memory architecture from Microsoft and Intel increases the data transfer rates in consumer electronics by cutting the bottlenecks affecting conventional NAND flash memory.

IM Flash Technologies, a joint venture between Intel and Micron, has developed an 8G-bit SLC (single-level cell) high-speed NAND chip which can reach read speeds up to 200M bytes per second. This enables writing speeds of up to 100M bytes per second, bringing about faster data transfers between devices like solid-state drives and video cards.

Conventional NAND flash memory from Micron and other players presently have transfer data at read rates of 40M bytes per second. Write rates are about 20M bytes per second.

The faster flash's architecture achieves the speed defined in the ONFI (Open NAND Flash Interface) 2.0 specification. Industry players and analysts say products based on the ONFI 2.0 specification have been under development and were expected.

Micron is currently sampling the high-speed NAND component and mass production is expected to start in the second half of 2008. The technology is expected to be put to future use in video and high-end photography devices that require flash memory with quick transfer speeds and reliable data retention.