Opinion Road

The new Wolfram|Alpha “computational knowledge engine” is the coolest thing I’ve seen in a long while. My first impression was that this was just a big fancy calculator to help people solve NP-complete problems and complex differential equations and whatnot. Not that this wouldn’t be impressive in its own right, but it’s not exactly something [...]

HD, SD, 720p, 1080p & Upscaling – wheat from chaff I once penned an email to my friend (Sarah) extolling my perspective on the relative quality a range media and TV hardware resolutions.  The data was far from scientific, but it’s based on a reasonable exposure to a range of media and output formats.  The [...]

The Google Reader iPhone App (or any reader application for that matter) and Desktop Readers are the types of interfaces [and if not the model for those] that will eventually the replace age-old practise of scanning broadsheet newspapers, the writing for which is already on the wall.  This makes these types of UIs crucial in [...]

What a full GMail inbox looks like I always wondered what GMail would do if, and whatsmore if I even could, reach/ed the capacity of my GMail account.  Well, as if to prove one of the corollary of Parkinson’s Law, today I discovered the limit of GMail’s patience with by hammering it (as an ‘email [...]

I keep an eye on the job market, just so I know who’s hiring, what they’re hiring for, and where I fit in with my current skills. I don’t read postings on monster.com or anything like that, I just keep up with a few choice job boards. After reading some well-written postings, it’s easy to [...]

I have recently noticed a disturbing trend start to develop in iPhone apps. It’s the “shake the phone to refresh” interaction model (a.k.a. the “Etch A Sketch” interaction model). The worst culprit is the Facebook app which requires the user to shake the phone to see their friends’ latest updates. To any iPhone developers out [...]

Recommended software: iiUsage For those of use below the equator (where data allowances are still measured and capped), monitoring bandwidth usage is usually a case of logging into to ISP control panel page.  iiNet, for example, have Toolbox – a reasonable utility, but a pain to login if all you want to know is our [...]

Having recently doubled my PC memory, I was not surprsied to find that running five fat (‘phat’?) applications at the same was a lot less painful with less need for the OS to use virtual memory (virutal RAM at a snails pace via your hard disk). However, upon returning to my computer today, I was [...]

Clearly they can’t decide Only in America In July 2009, Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) and the U.S. Air Force will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first flight of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, which occurred on July 17, 1989. As a visual centerpiece of its year-long celebration of this milestone, Northrop Grumman, the Air Force’s [...]

Can you imagine? … Letterbox bars on the side! “Ridiculously wide” is right.  It doesn’t even seem right 2.40:1 – wow.  Whilst Philips continue to make very poorly constructed products (IMHO), they certainly haven’t stopped innovating – my hats off too them. Philips Ultra-Widescreen 21:9 Cinema LCD Moves the Letterbox Bars To the Side – [...]