Testing Adobe Contribute

Testing out this piece of software that came with my windows 7 install. Adobe contribute apparently allows you to edit your blog inside its own browser with a whole bunch of different adobe-ish options. Anyone at RPI who had re-imaged to W7 should have it. I'll play around with it some more when I get the chance.

Contribute,Adobe

R.I.P. Les Paul, Legend, Father of Rock

Musician, inventor, and genre pioneer Les Paul died yesterday at the age of 94. He invented the solid-body electric guitar in 1939, and multi-track recording in 1948, revolutionizing music and creating multiple generations of rockers. He built his own tools, blazed his own trail, changed the world with a smile on his face and put one on ours through the bands that use the technologies he pioneered. He will be missed and remembered any time an electric guitar is played.

Les Paul, you rocked. We salute you.

RPI Technology Blog (TechnoBlag)

I Sh*t You Not, It Was Smoke. Seriously.

I had completely forgotten about this video when I went down to Kings Dominion yesterday afternoon, but at about 3 PM I was confronted with the shocking(ly mundane) truth. I watched the flame on top of the volcano ride spout furiously to announce the exit of the ride's passengers from its mouth. I felt its heat on my skin. I peered upward and observed a circular plume of smoke rise into the air and hang there for over almost 10 minutes. Next to me, a little boy shouted "Hey look! Smoke rings!" and I thought to myself: “We’ve evolved."

But even so, I still can't be convinced it wasn't UFO/sign for the almighty after watching this video. I mean, look at her eyes! I would believe anything that spouted from her sane and obviously neurotoxin free brain!

RPI Technology Blog (TechnoBlag)

HTML5 Love

It's not Flash. It's the future.

Over the next few years, HTML5 is going to be phasing out HTML4 (what most websites are coded in today) and it offers some exciting new features, including streaming video and flash-like animations without the need for additional plug-ins.

This site is really cool, and coded completely in HTML5. It only works in Opera, Firefox 3.5 or Chrome though, so if you're using IE, feel free to join the 21st century at any time.

RPI Technology Blog (TechnoBlag)

New Chrome Beta Adds Themes, More Speed

Google released its new Chrome 3.0 Beta this morning. They've added a new themes gallery and juiced it up claiming "this beta release shows over 30% improvement on both the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks." On top of that, you can now customize your “New Tab" page (the page that pops up when you click for a new tab...duh) to have whatever links you want on it, not necessarily the ones you visit the most. Details about this release can be found on the Google Chrome Blog.

RPI Technology Blog (TechnoBlag)

Pandora Is Only Good for 40 Hours a Month

Since I only started using Pandora Radio last week, I wasn't aware that the 40 hours of free music was newly imposed limit. But there you have it: As of at least a week ago, you only get 40 hours of free music on Pandora before they shut you down and call you a mooch.

Thanks to Dylan for the tip.

RPI Technology Blog (TechnoBlag)

Broadband over Power Lines Gets Standardized… Sort Of

What does that mean for you? It means the day when you can walk out of your house or apartment, or into the Great American Desert, and still be connected to the Internet is fast approaching. (And by fast, I mean it could happen in your lifetime).

Last week, the IEEE approved “IEEE Standard P1901,” a standard that's supposed to outline a universal way to connect devices to a broadband network using power lines. It also standardizes a way to connect current Ethernet and WiFi devices to a Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) network. The problem is that it only gets us half way there. While they are calling it a standard, what’s really been drafted is two standards (FTT and Wavelet PHYs) that don’t necessarily work well together.

Still, this is a major step forward for BPL since there wasn’t a true industry standard before this, meaning BPL devices up until now could, and did, interfere with other BPL devices running on the same network. We’ll still have some of that unless they can settle on one true standard, but this is a step in the right direction.

Broadband over Power Lines devices have been available for awhile now, like NETGEAR’s “Powerline AV Ethernet Adapter” that allows you to “turn any electrical power outlet into a high-speed Internet and home network connection.” Those devices allow you to create a broadband Ethernet connection anywhere you have a power outlet, making for a much faster and reliable connection than, say, 802.11g Wifi.

While BPL internet for your home isn’t a very popular option in the United States, using power lines as a backbone network for things like WiMAX could be very effective in providing fast internet connectivity over a wide area, like a city. WiMAX stations could also be connected to high voltage power lines in more rural areas and deliver the same quality of service without the need of an extra fiber-optic network. Wherever you have electricity, you could theoretically have a broadband Internet connection.

It’s going to be awhile before this gets any traction though. Those two “standards” will have to find some sort of common ground lest we see the equivalent of “Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD” in the BPL world. That could take years.

Thanks to Andy for the tip.

RPI Technology Blog (TechnoBlag)