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Monthly Archives: November 2009

Technology

Google translate on the fly

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So most us have used Google Translate once or more and some of us have even incorporated this use into something we almost need in our everyday work. For the last group of the two new features with the service always makes quite a great impact on how work is performed.

Google Translate just got real time! For people which received an invite for Google Wave might have seen this feature already together with the translation-bot used there. The same functionality has now been moved into the regular translation-service as well.

The change from submitting a whole sentence to the service to what it is today when it use some nifty push-technology to translate more or less in segments instead (I guess it push queries on a timely basis AJAX-style) is perhaps not the greatest. But the change here is really more of an architectural change in how services evolve today. We move more and more from static services into dynamic real time solutions where as much as possible is to be executed when the user want it.

Now we all just wait to get this functionality to be incorporated into our social networks so that we finally got that Babelfish of which Douglas Adams once wrote about.

Google translate on the fly

Google translate on the fly

Random

Chunks of ice found on moon

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Moon is a place that has been said to be a very dry and cold place since the first time we started to glance towards it. Pictures from it has show a fine layer of dust all over the surface and most people therefore took it for granted that the entire planet was a dried out and vast place. This understanding has stood for many years but now it seem that this is to be rocked to a completely new image of how our neighbor in the sky is built.

Recent findings by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that there exist polar ice on the moon. The amount of ice found is still very small so that we will not find any lakes or seas any time soon. Instead the chunks was found in a few permanently shadowy places never before explored. Still, the existence of water will tell us that there actually exist water outside of planet earth, and not only in asteroids and such. A source of water on the moon will also be of great value for a future base.

Bombing the moon is how the method has been called in media and it was by this that scientist could get data on particles thrown from the surface which made it possible to find the water. And no it was not really a bombing of the moon. Instead it was two satellites which was launched with a direct collision-course against the moon and when they crashed down on the surface it was possible to analyze the clouds which rose form the collision and distinguish what they did contain.

Makes one wonder how long we actually is from setting up a permanent base on our closest neighbour. As of now we have a source of water, we have minerals which is said to contain oxygen and we also have a way of creating a material similar to concrete with which we can build simple constructions as buildings or roads.

Earth to moon-base, pass the salt please.

Resources:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090923-moon-water-discovery.html

Random

Majestic clouds now also over Romania

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Not so long ago I had an article about a very strange phenomena visible in the sky above Moscow, Russia. The cloud formation shaped just as a circle was said to be a freak cloud-formation with passing sun-light passing through. Now the same phenomena happened again in Romaina and the report of the clouds is once again – a freak formation of clouds. The story is contested by sceptics though who claim that this is something from another world.

One question raised from viewers of the clip on Live Leak was regarding the fact that this is something never seen before but now have been seen in two different places in the world with just a small period of time in between.

The meteorologists explain that this seem to be what is called a “fallstreak hole” (also known as Punch Hole Clouds due to their look of a hole in the clouds) though which do show up when super-cooled moisture can not turn into ice and therefore remain in a supercooled state in the sky. And by searching for images of these fallstreak holes one can find allot of really amazing images. How these phenomenon can mistaken for a UFO is not in any way strange when one look at them and it is also obvious here that the formations shown in Russia and Romania is not at all isolated to a few sightings.

Nature, is she not beautiful?

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallstreak_hole
http://ufos.about.com/b/2009/11/06/strange-cloud-formation-in-romania.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6438621/UFO-cloud-formation-filmed-in-Romania.html

Art & Design

Awsome fair trade urban backback

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When I first read the description of this bag it left me with a good bunch of questions. Not just the fact that the bag is made up by discarded truck-tires but also that it is supposed to be fair trade and on top of all this created using good design. But the images got me really hooked and I must say that this is one of the best looking backpacks in a long time. Good design together with fair trade. Wonderful!

The bag can be bought from Wannekes and comes in all available colors as long as you want it in black. It’s priced at 195 euros which is a bit over-priced in my opinion but for that price you get a fair trade, great looking bag so I’m all for an order!

Pangolin
Pangolin

Resources:

  • http://www.notcot.org/post/26101/
  • http://www.wannekes.com/categorie/personal_accessories/product/urban_design_backpack_fair_trade_bags_men
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade

Update (2011-04-21): Not longer available for 19 euros. New price is 209 euro.

Art & Design

Radio by motion

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In a world where everything need a touchscreen and finger swipes is the natural way of doing just everything comes a great conceptual product named R1. It is not good looking, it can not twitter, but still I so want one on my desk by some strange reason. The R1 is a radio which you control by moving it.

R1The pure aesthetic design of this product is not why I choose to write about it. This is an analog radio with nothing really fancy except the fact you can manage and use it even if completely blind. This is also the purpose of the radio according to the designer Il-Gu Cha, to make the radio more available for blind people. To turn it on you simply place it on a surface and move it away from you, he further away you move it and louder the volume. When the volume is correct you can move it sideways to change the tuning and to find a station.

The simplicity of this device do show that design is more then a shiny outer of a product. It can consist of a productified thought made into something which is made to work more then just to look good.

Resources:
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/11/r1-radio-has-a.php

Entertainment

Outsourced

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In a time where allot of companies choose to outsource their workforce comes this romantic comedy by fairly unknown John Jeffcoat. The story is set around a man who find himself being outsourced to an Indian company and we get to follow him on his adventures in being an American in Asia. What really made this movie interesting was that I could set it in perspective from my own stay in India a while ago.

OutsourcedTodd is a call-center manager who quite frankly do not like his job. Nevertheless he get upset when he find out that his company is outsourcing him and his team to an Indian company. He even get the task of learning his own replacement about what to do. All from his first views of the Indian society to the clash of cultures is coated in a warm and fuzzy feeling as it is a romantic comedy.

So how does the movie compare to my own observations then? Well first of all, there is more people – everywhere. In Outsourced all that was shown was these calm suburban streets found in the US, and those was not the case in the India I was located in. What was perfectly shown though was the amazing warmth and kindness of the Indian people. You did see smiles and colors almost where ever you went which was an amazing experience for me, coming from the cold and a bit reserved Scandinavia.

If you are ot for a general feel-good movie with no real surprises this is a movie for you. Eventhough the movie can be a bit predictable in parts it will deliver a couple of smiles.

Resources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425326/


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