What is a MyCast from Orb? Well they have a great description and many details on their website so I won’t go into the details. But let it suffice to say that with this software, running on my home PC, I can view all of my videos, podcasts, music files, photos, and anything that’s either a video, audio, or media file, from anywhere I can access the web.

This stuff even works on my Dell Axim pocket pc. It’s somehow amazing that I was able to walk around the office, watching “The Office” in the palm of my hand, knowing it was streaming via the wireless LAN and then via the Internet, all the way from my computer at home. The current version is a little buggy, it tends to crash but it does a great job when it’s running. Streaming quality is excellent, of course dependent on your network connection, and the new flash player allows for even more flexibility than before.

I would highly recommend this for anyone who is on the go a lot and just doesn’t have enough time at home to watch their media stored on their PC.

What is a MyCast from Orb? Well they have a great description and many details on their website so I won’t go into the details. But let it suffice to say that with this software, running on my home PC, I can view all of my videos, podcasts, music files, photos, and anything that’s either a video, audio, or media file, from anywhere I can access the web.

This stuff even works on my Dell Axim pocket pc. It’s somehow amazing that I was able to walk around the office, watching “The Office” in the palm of my hand, knowing it was streaming via the wireless LAN and then via the Internet, all the way from my computer at home. The current version is a little buggy, it tends to crash but it does a great job when it’s running. Streaming quality is excellent, of course dependent on your network connection, and the new flash player allows for even more flexibility than before.

I would highly recommend this for anyone who is on the go a lot and just doesn’t have enough time at home to watch their media stored on their PC.

No wonder it took 5 years for Windows Vista to be released…

No wonder it took 5 years for Windows Vista to be released…

I know some of my friends could make good use of this gadget…

The BallFinder scout is the perfect accessory for golfers who want an easier way to locate a lost ball. It scans “up to 600 square feet in one second or almost 1/7 of an acre in 10 seconds.†That’s not all, “each of two million pixels is scanned in nanoseconds and analyzed pixel by pixel using proprietary GLS golf ball locating system technology to look for the unique color signature found on any standard white golf ball.â€

I know some of my friends could make good use of this gadget…

The BallFinder scout is the perfect accessory for golfers who want an easier way to locate a lost ball. It scans “up to 600 square feet in one second or almost 1/7 of an acre in 10 seconds.” That’s not all, “each of two million pixels is scanned in nanoseconds and analyzed pixel by pixel using proprietary GLS golf ball locating system technology to look for the unique color signature found on any standard white golf ball.”

A USB flash drive that inflates as you fill it with data….

Designed by Dima Komissarov, the Flashbag is a USB storage device that inflates as it “fills up with dataâ€. Currently, the technology is patent pending. No word yet on if the Flashbag will go into produciton.

Why??

A USB flash drive that inflates as you fill it with data….

Designed by Dima Komissarov, the Flashbag is a USB storage device that inflates as it “fills up with data”. Currently, the technology is patent pending. No word yet on if the Flashbag will go into produciton.

Why??

The Ultra Mobile PC, Microsoft’s new ultra-ultra-portable personal computer, apparently has a few new tricks up its sleeve that Microsoft neglected to tell anyone. In their testing of a prototype UMPC, UMPCOrigami found that Samsung’s engineers, awaiting the “official†operating system from Microsoft, had taken matters into their own hands and installed Linux in Windows’ place. Refusing to name the distribution used in the test, the team managed to proudly display Tux at 800 x 400 and loaded up the GNOME Desktop Environment with no trouble. These new UMPCs will contain a 1 GHz Celeron M, Pentium M, or VIA C7-M x86 processor with 256MB RAM and a 30 or 60 GB hard drive.

read more | digg story

The Ultra Mobile PC, Microsoft’s new ultra-ultra-portable personal computer, apparently has a few new tricks up its sleeve that Microsoft neglected to tell anyone. In their testing of a prototype UMPC, UMPCOrigami found that Samsung’s engineers, awaiting the “official” operating system from Microsoft, had taken matters into their own hands and installed Linux in Windows’ place. Refusing to name the distribution used in the test, the team managed to proudly display Tux at 800 x 400 and loaded up the GNOME Desktop Environment with no trouble. These new UMPCs will contain a 1 GHz Celeron M, Pentium M, or VIA C7-M x86 processor with 256MB RAM and a 30 or 60 GB hard drive.

read more | digg story

How about playing Quake 3 on a 24 monitor wall? Yes, that’s exactly what the guys over at plastk did by running the game on a 12-node Linux cluster with two monitors per server.  This is just plain crazy. The bevel between the monitors detracts a little from the effect but it’s still a lot cooler than my single monitor…

How about playing Quake 3 on a 24 monitor wall? Yes, that’s exactly what the guys over at plastk did by running the game on a 12-node Linux cluster with two monitors per server.  This is just plain crazy. The bevel between the monitors detracts a little from the effect but it’s still a lot cooler than my single monitor…

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Web Developer extension for Firefox but damn is it ever cool! The fact that you can visually display where CSS tags or blocks or divs or classes or whatever start and end is amazing. Want to see what colour and type that font is? Just turn on the elements info, hover your mouse over it and it will show you. That is just sweet! I realize some of my friends are going to go “Huh? Web Developer? CSS What? Block Who?” but someone who knows just how rough it can be to decipher someone else’s website’s style – especially if you’re trying to steal something – will appreciate this.

I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Web Developer extension for Firefox but damn is it ever cool! The fact that you can visually display where CSS tags or blocks or divs or classes or whatever start and end is amazing. Want to see what colour and type that font is? Just turn on the elements info, hover your mouse over it and it will show you. That is just sweet! I realize some of my friends are going to go “Huh? Web Developer? CSS What? Block Who?” but someone who knows just how rough it can be to decipher someone else’s website’s style – especially if you’re trying to steal something – will appreciate this.

FireAnt is my new application for synchronizing podcasts and video casts. The nicest thing about it is its channel directory and its built-in media player.

FireAnt delivers a rich media experience through a simple to use, unified viewer that lets you watch all types of content without having to worry about which format it is (Quicktime, Windows Media, Real, Flash, MP3, and more).

FireAnt connects your favorite media to a wide variety of portable video players (Sony PSP, Apple iPod, Creative Zen Vision and more!) which gives you the power and flexibility to get media content right onto your portable devices! FireAnt also supports HTTP, Streaming, and BitTorrent downloads, bringing you an easy and efficient way of getting what you want when you want it.

FireAnt is my new application for synchronizing podcasts and video casts. The nicest thing about it is its channel directory and its built-in media player.

FireAnt delivers a rich media experience through a simple to use, unified viewer that lets you watch all types of content without having to worry about which format it is (Quicktime, Windows Media, Real, Flash, MP3, and more).

FireAnt connects your favorite media to a wide variety of portable video players (Sony PSP, Apple iPod, Creative Zen Vision and more!) which gives you the power and flexibility to get media content right onto your portable devices! FireAnt also supports HTTP, Streaming, and BitTorrent downloads, bringing you an easy and efficient way of getting what you want when you want it.

Ok, I want this!

With six 24″ flat panel displays that feature 1920×1200 resolution (5760×2400 combined) and 1000:1 contrast ratio, the ZenView is truly an elite command center. Each panel includes five digital DVI-D inputs, analog RGB/VGA input, and an S-Video input. The only weak link is its price. For $11,999 you can either buy a single large HDTV display or several powerful computers.monitors

I’m not a huge fan of carrying around heavy devices, such as a laptop. My blackberry (well, my company’s) is small enough but it’s still a pain to use. Apparently Microsoft is coming out with a new 7″ tablet type of device that was discovered just recently. More information is supposed to be made available on March the 2nd. There’s a few images floating around the net, including what looks like a promotional video (see below).

From the looks of it, it’s pretty cool and may combine the features of your laptop with those of an iPod. From the video, it would appear that these devices can play back music, connect to WiFi networks (and possibly Bluetooth devices), and has enough power to handle graphics work and games. Like Tablet PCs, Origami makes use of a pen input device, as well as buttons on either side of the screen. The video also reveals the device will be available in at least two colours (black / lime green), and has a docking station to match.

Here’s another screenshot, plus the video:

Ok, I want this!

With six 24″ flat panel displays that feature 1920×1200 resolution (5760×2400 combined) and 1000:1 contrast ratio, the ZenView is truly an elite command center. Each panel includes five digital DVI-D inputs, analog RGB/VGA input, and an S-Video input. The only weak link is its price. For $11,999 you can either buy a single large HDTV display or several powerful computers.monitors

I’m not a huge fan of carrying around heavy devices, such as a laptop. My blackberry (well, my company’s) is small enough but it’s still a pain to use. Apparently Microsoft is coming out with a new 7″ tablet type of device that was discovered just recently. More information is supposed to be made available on March the 2nd. There’s a few images floating around the net, including what looks like a promotional video (see below).

From the looks of it, it’s pretty cool and may combine the features of your laptop with those of an iPod. From the video, it would appear that these devices can play back music, connect to WiFi networks (and possibly Bluetooth devices), and has enough power to handle graphics work and games. Like Tablet PCs, Origami makes use of a pen input device, as well as buttons on either side of the screen. The video also reveals the device will be available in at least two colours (black / lime green), and has a docking station to match.

Here’s another screenshot, plus the video:

At work we have a subscription to MSDN and are thus lucky enough to receive beta releases of Microsoft products. Of course the one receiving the most press is Vista. So after nearly 8 hours of trying to download the 2.78GB ISO image (thanks Paul!) I found myself contemplating a plan of attack. I wanted to install Vista on my system at home. Previous CTP releases have never been any problem. Well this release had some case of tech PMS as it took me forever to get it to install.

First it wasn’t pleased with any of the partitions I had prepared for it. I eventually managed to squeeze all of my files into existing partitions and was able to clear an entire 80GB harddrive for it. Of course that harddrive had to be the master one. Windows is still snobby. The first installation, which I let run overnight, resulted in an unbootable system because of a missing or corrupted system registry. The second try decided to just stop half-way through and just sit there. The third try was the charm as I was finally able to log in.

At this point I reconnected my main harddrive (with Windows XP and Linux) on it and reconfigured the Grub boot manager to include Windows Vista as one of its selections. I’m actually amazed that it worked as easily as it did. So now I can triple boot between Linux, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. Sweet!

This release of Vista seems much more stable than the prior one and also a bit faster. Graphically it’s very easy on the eyes but some of the design changes will take some getting used to. Navigating folders for example seems different. I still find myself looking for the Up button. All in all though, I’m more looking forward to the final Vista release than ever. Now as long as Microsoft doesn’t intend to charge us outrageous prices, I’m there, ready, willing, and able to upgrade as soon as it’s released.

Just to prove that I did it, here’s some screenshots:

 

 

 

At work we have a subscription to MSDN and are thus lucky enough to receive beta releases of Microsoft products. Of course the one receiving the most press is Vista. So after nearly 8 hours of trying to download the 2.78GB ISO image (thanks Paul!) I found myself contemplating a plan of attack. I wanted to install Vista on my system at home. Previous CTP releases have never been any problem. Well this release had some case of tech PMS as it took me forever to get it to install.

First it wasn’t pleased with any of the partitions I had prepared for it. I eventually managed to squeeze all of my files into existing partitions and was able to clear an entire 80GB harddrive for it. Of course that harddrive had to be the master one. Windows is still snobby. The first installation, which I let run overnight, resulted in an unbootable system because of a missing or corrupted system registry. The second try decided to just stop half-way through and just sit there. The third try was the charm as I was finally able to log in.

At this point I reconnected my main harddrive (with Windows XP and Linux) on it and reconfigured the Grub boot manager to include Windows Vista as one of its selections. I’m actually amazed that it worked as easily as it did. So now I can triple boot between Linux, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. Sweet!

This release of Vista seems much more stable than the prior one and also a bit faster. Graphically it’s very easy on the eyes but some of the design changes will take some getting used to. Navigating folders for example seems different. I still find myself looking for the Up button. All in all though, I’m more looking forward to the final Vista release than ever. Now as long as Microsoft doesn’t intend to charge us outrageous prices, I’m there, ready, willing, and able to upgrade as soon as it’s released.

Just to prove that I did it, here’s some screenshots:

 

 

 

eWeek has taken a look at the latest build of Windows Vista.beta

This release of Vista is “feature-complete”, the company says, meaning that all of the fundamental capabilities that Vista will eventually offer are now baked in.

Development efforts aren’t slowing—the user experience will continue to evolve, bugs will get fixed, performance and compatibility will improve—but the basic shape of the operating system has been solidified, and from here on out we expect to see mostly fine-tuning rather than wholesale changes.

We’ve been running this latest release, build 5308, for a couple of days now, getting a feel for its capabilities while Microsoft prepared to make it available to the community of MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) subscribers, TechNet users, and registered beta testers. Our expectations, set high by the quality of the previous December CTP (build 5270), were largely met.

We found this build of Vista is responsive and highly usable, though still far from bullet-proof (as is to be expected for beta software). Aside from some of the predictable problems with hardware-device support and still-buggy features, one particular problem was that Windows Explorer crashes frequently. To Microsoft’s credit, these crashes were hardly dramatic, since Explorer managed to restart itself and resume each time.

Some screenshots below and more at the original article.

eWeek has taken a look at the latest build of Windows Vista.beta

This release of Vista is “feature-complete”, the company says, meaning that all of the fundamental capabilities that Vista will eventually offer are now baked in.

Development efforts aren’t slowing—the user experience will continue to evolve, bugs will get fixed, performance and compatibility will improve—but the basic shape of the operating system has been solidified, and from here on out we expect to see mostly fine-tuning rather than wholesale changes.

We’ve been running this latest release, build 5308, for a couple of days now, getting a feel for its capabilities while Microsoft prepared to make it available to the community of MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) subscribers, TechNet users, and registered beta testers. Our expectations, set high by the quality of the previous December CTP (build 5270), were largely met.

We found this build of Vista is responsive and highly usable, though still far from bullet-proof (as is to be expected for beta software). Aside from some of the predictable problems with hardware-device support and still-buggy features, one particular problem was that Windows Explorer crashes frequently. To Microsoft’s credit, these crashes were hardly dramatic, since Explorer managed to restart itself and resume each time.

Some screenshots below and more at the original article.

All the talk is about the new eyecandy that will be available in Windows Vista. While Mac users have been enjoying cool features on their desktop for ages, Expose for example, Linux users will soon be able to do the same and maybe more. XGL is a composite layer that runs on top of the regular X-Windows GUI. It allows the desktop to make full use of your powerful 3D graphics card.

Xgl is an X server architecture, started by David Reveman, layered on top of OpenGL via glitz. Nowadays, most PCs are shipped with a 3D graphics card (foremostly from NVIDIA or ATI Technologies) and Xgl allows the X server to take advantage of its 3D processing power, assuming suitable drivers are available.

The results are absolutely staggering. See for yourself:

All the talk is about the new eyecandy that will be available in Windows Vista. While Mac users have been enjoying cool features on their desktop for ages, Expose for example, Linux users will soon be able to do the same and maybe more. XGL is a composite layer that runs on top of the regular X-Windows GUI. It allows the desktop to make full use of your powerful 3D graphics card.

Xgl is an X server architecture, started by David Reveman, layered on top of OpenGL via glitz. Nowadays, most PCs are shipped with a 3D graphics card (foremostly from NVIDIA or ATI Technologies) and Xgl allows the X server to take advantage of its 3D processing power, assuming suitable drivers are available.

The results are absolutely staggering. See for yourself:

This picture is a scream. Network World online editor Adam Gaffin was in New York City over the weekend and snapped this photo of the world’s largest Windows error message.

This picture is a scream. Network World online editor Adam Gaffin was in New York City over the weekend and snapped this photo of the world’s largest Windows error message.

Microsoft used to have a beta version of Microsoft Antispyware that worked quite well. When I moved to Windows x64, I stopped using it because it wasn’t compatible. Now Microsoft has released Windows Defender, essentially beta 2 of the antispyware software.

Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it’s detected, and a new streamlined interface that minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive.

I don’t really need to use antispyware software but a lot of people I know need to. So you should probably upgrade to this latest version. It updates itself automatically, can run nightly scans, etc, etc. Just make sure you have a legal version of Windows as this can only be downloaded after you’ve passed the  Genuine Advantage test.

Microsoft used to have a beta version of Microsoft Antispyware that worked quite well. When I moved to Windows x64, I stopped using it because it wasn’t compatible. Now Microsoft has released Windows Defender, essentially beta 2 of the antispyware software.

Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it’s detected, and a new streamlined interface that minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive.

I don’t really need to use antispyware software but a lot of people I know need to. So you should probably upgrade to this latest version. It updates itself automatically, can run nightly scans, etc, etc. Just make sure you have a legal version of Windows as this can only be downloaded after you’ve passed the  Genuine Advantage test.

Designed for “scientists, geologists, archaeologists or adventurers”, Nissan’s 4×4 Terranaut features a “spherical laboratory” that is accessed from a 360 degree swiveling seat. Unfortunately, all these workstations leave room for only one passenger side door.carfuture

What’s the chance of seeing the Terranaut on the street? Pretty good if you own a Holodeck.

Source: Autoblog

Column from PC Magazine: Will Apple Adopt Windows?

This story sounds pretty incredible but John makes some decent arguments. It’d be pretty tempting to buy one of those cool looking Macs and be able to play all the latest games on it. I’m not a huge fan of the Windows OS, nor have I ever used Mac OSX, but I do prefer the style of Apple’s hardware over the usual Windows boxes.

Apple has always said it was a hardware company, not a software company. Now with the cash cow iPod line, it can afford to drop expensive OS development and just make jazzy, high-margin Windows computers to finally get beyond that five-percent market share and compete directly with Dell, HP, and the stodgy Chinese makers.

Yesterday I blogged about Goowy. While it’s a pretty neat service it’s still a bit too buggy for everyday use. At least for me. So I decided to check out Protopage. This is another Ajax powered customizable personal homepage. It seems a little bit more stable and faster. It’s free, so it’s worth a try. See my screenshot below.

Designed for “scientists, geologists, archaeologists or adventurers”, Nissan’s 4×4 Terranaut features a “spherical laboratory” that is accessed from a 360 degree swiveling seat. Unfortunately, all these workstations leave room for only one passenger side door.carfuture

What’s the chance of seeing the Terranaut on the street? Pretty good if you own a Holodeck.

Source: Autoblog

Column from PC Magazine: Will Apple Adopt Windows?

This story sounds pretty incredible but John makes some decent arguments. It’d be pretty tempting to buy one of those cool looking Macs and be able to play all the latest games on it. I’m not a huge fan of the Windows OS, nor have I ever used Mac OSX, but I do prefer the style of Apple‘s hardware over the usual Windows boxes.

Apple has always said it was a hardware company, not a software company. Now with the cash cow iPod line, it can afford to drop expensive OS development and just make jazzy, high-margin Windows computers to finally get beyond that five-percent market share and compete directly with Dell, HP, and the stodgy Chinese makers.

Yesterday I blogged about Goowy. While it’s a pretty neat service it’s still a bit too buggy for everyday use. At least for me. So I decided to check out Protopage. This is another Ajax powered customizable personal homepage. It seems a little bit more stable and faster. It’s free, so it’s worth a try. See my screenshot below.

Goowy is something I just heard about in the latest Inside the Net podcast.

goowy (re) is a rich experience site which helps you manage your digital lifestyle. We provide you with a fresh and powerful environment for managing your webmail, contacts, calendar, rss, widgets (search, bookmarks, photos, weather, stocks, quotes, scores, etc.), and fun flash games.

It’s really quite cool. The first thing I did was import my gmail emails into my goowy account. Now, I’ll continue to receive them at gmail but will use goowy to read and write them. The other nice thing it does is that it also acts as an RSS feed reader. Here’s a screenshot of the web-based version of it. Give it a try, it’s pretty useful.Web 2.0

Goowy is something I just heard about in the latest Inside the Net podcast.

goowy (re) is a rich experience site which helps you manage your digital lifestyle. We provide you with a fresh and powerful environment for managing your webmail, contacts, calendar, rss, widgets (search, bookmarks, photos, weather, stocks, quotes, scores, etc.), and fun flash games.

It’s really quite cool. The first thing I did was import my gmail emails into my goowy account. Now, I’ll continue to receive them at gmail but will use goowy to read and write them. The other nice thing it does is that it also acts as an RSS feed reader. Here’s a screenshot of the web-based version of it. Give it a try, it’s pretty useful.Web 2.0

I just received the latest version of the Windows Live Messenger beta. They’re using an invitation system to get new users in the beta, so if you want one, post a comment and I’ll get you one.

I just received the latest version of the Windows Live Messenger beta. They’re using an invitation system to get new users in the beta, so if you want one, post a comment and I’ll get you one.

Google has updated their Gmail logo recently and a mock-up of a possible new logo has appeared on Flickr.

After Google released a new Gmail logo to complement the addition of Talk, I thought that changing the actual Google logo to match would be a good idea. I’m happy with the results.

Here it is:

Google has updated their Gmail logo recently and a mock-up of a possible new logo has appeared on Flickr.

After Google released a new Gmail logo to complement the addition of Talk, I thought that changing the actual Google logo to match would be a good idea. I’m happy with the results.

Here it is:

This is kinda neat. Someone has posted a montage of sorts using the logos of all (well almost all) Web 2.0 companies. The end result is a really cool image which shows off just how colourful web 2.0 is. The image is posted on Flickr and I have posted the small version below.

This is kinda neat. Someone has posted a montage of sorts using the logos of all (well almost all) Web 2.0 companies. The end result is a really cool image which shows off just how colourful web 2.0 is. The image is posted on Flickr and I have posted the small version below.

Building homemade digital cameras from low-end flatbed scanners

This is pretty damn cool. This guy has built a digital camera out of an old, low-end flatbed scanner. The resulting images can have some really interesting distortions, especially when the image is taken of moving objects. We all know how slowly the scanner moves across its surface, so the image on the left here makes sense. The website includes instructions on how to build your own flatbed camera and if it sounds like a good use for that old dust magnet scanner on your desk, good luck with it!

Building homemade digital cameras from low-end flatbed scanners

This is pretty damn cool. This guy has built a digital camera out of an old, low-end flatbed scanner. The resulting images can have some really interesting distortions, especially when the image is taken of moving objects. We all know how slowly the scanner moves across its surface, so the image on the left here makes sense. The website includes instructions on how to build your own flatbed camera and if it sounds like a good use for that old dust magnet scanner on your desk, good luck with it!

Google execs keep $1 salaries | Tech News on ZDNet

Top executives of Google have once again agreed to be paid annual salaries of $1 each in 2006, counting instead on stock options and grants of the company’s volatile stock for their pay.

In a regulatory filing on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Web search leader said it had approved a base salary of $1 for Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and its two co-founders and co-presidents, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The three were paid $1 a piece in salary during 2005.

The action–which was approved by Google last Tuesday but only disclosed this week–occurred ahead of the 14 percent decline in the company’s stock price last week amid investor concerns over the Internet sector’s growth outlook and revelation of a legal spat with the U.S. Justice Department.

But before anyone offers to spring for bus fare for Google executives, note that the 7 percent rebound in the price of the company’s stock on Monday alone means that Schmidt’s shares had recovered $413.8 million in value during the one-day trading session, according to CNET’s CEO Wealthmeter site. As a result, his total wealth in shares is roughly $6.3 billion.

Google execs keep $1 salaries | Tech News on ZDNet

Top executives of Google have once again agreed to be paid annual salaries of $1 each in 2006, counting instead on stock options and grants of the company’s volatile stock for their pay.

In a regulatory filing on Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Web search leader said it had approved a base salary of $1 for Chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt and its two co-founders and co-presidents, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

The three were paid $1 a piece in salary during 2005.

The action–which was approved by Google last Tuesday but only disclosed this week–occurred ahead of the 14 percent decline in the company’s stock price last week amid investor concerns over the Internet sector’s growth outlook and revelation of a legal spat with the U.S. Justice Department.

But before anyone offers to spring for bus fare for Google executives, note that the 7 percent rebound in the price of the company’s stock on Monday alone means that Schmidt’s shares had recovered $413.8 million in value during the one-day trading session, according to CNET’s CEO Wealthmeter site. As a result, his total wealth in shares is roughly $6.3 billion.

SEOmoz :: AJAX Powered IP Location Lookup is a nifty little tool that takes an IP address and tries to map its location on a Google map. Perfect for sending flowers to that special someone who keeps spamming your inbox. It’s not perfect (I don’t live in the lake…) but it’s a cool application of the Google Maps API nonetheless.

The pic on the left is an example of looking up google.com.Ajax

For those that didn’t go to CES 2006, like myself and most of you, you can still see Bill Gates’ keynote address. It’s an hour and a half and even though I’m not a huge Microsoft fan, they do have some interesting views for the future. A pretty detailed demonstration of the upcoming Windows Vista. Some of the new features look pretty cool. The major side effect from seeing all those gadgets is that I have a sudden urge to rob a bank and raid the nearest Futureshop…