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Microsoft’s Holodesk Allows Users To Directly Interact With Virtual Objects

20. October 2011

The Holodesk. (Photo: Microsoft.com)

All of us, at some point in time, have always wondered what virtual objects, shown in video games, would actually feel like if we could touch them with our own hands. I am not talking in terms of virtual reality or even augmented reality, but in terms of actually touching a coin or a mushroom with your own hands, while playing a game of Super Mario Bros. Such a statement would normally only come true in the world of science fiction right? well not exactly, because thanks a new research project by the Device and sensor group at the Microsoft Cambridge research center, we have already made a new step in the idea of directly interacting with virtual items. Enter the Holodesk

This Holodesk basically consist of an Xbox Kinect camera and a pane of glass, all attached to a computer monitor and a couple of other optical illusion object like a beam splitter. As evident by the video, the man is placing his hands directly below the glass pane, which consists several virtual playing balls. If seen from the top of the glass, the synchronization between the image of his hands and the green playing balls happens in such a way that we get the impression or the illusion that his hands are actually ‘touching’ those balls.

The mechanism behind it is not so hard to comprehend, if you have a strong understanding on how lights and optical illusions work. With the help of a powerful graphic algorithm, the motion of the person’s hands is captured by the kinect camera and then processed to synchronize with the virtual ball, all on the computer screen. For the next step, these optical devices like the beam splitters project this image on the glass pane, which is situated directly above the person’s hands.

Before we you to get to exited, please keep in mind that this device is still a protoype and even when it is fully developed, it will first be available for lab and research use only. However, the amount of exciting advancements to the computer industry, that can be caused by this fully developed product, are too long to list. So I leave the guesswork up to you.

(rockefellernews/yk)

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Written by Yash Karnad

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Apple: World’s Second Most Valuable Brand

16. September 2011

Apple is now the world’s second most valuable brand as of September 2011 statistics. (Photo: m.zdnet.com.au)

The British brands consulting firm Brand Finance published the list of the world’s most valuable companies or brands in 2011, based on the worth of the brands, on Wednesday, September 15. Google achieved the first place in the ranking. Apple and Microsoft are second and third in the list respectively.

Brand Finance studied the cash flow and other financial activities of the brands to determine the worth of the brands and charted them according to the value. Google brand value rose 9 percent and the worth of Google’s trademarks and other intellectual property is $48.3 billion.

This year Apple is the most successful company and its brand is worth $39.3 billion as the new chat, which is about 33 percent more than the previous statistics. Apple, for the first time, passed Microsoft, IBM, Wal-Mart, and General Electronics.

On the other hand, Microsoft dropped to the third place with a brand worth $39 billion, which is 9 percent less than the value of the last year. However, it is predicted that the upcoming Windows 8 may raise the value of the brand.

Below the top three, the top ten includes IBM, Wal-Mart, General Electronic, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America respectively. For the first time, in the list, all of the top four brands are tech bands, according to reports.

(rockefellernews/rd)

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Microsoft To Offer Huge Rewards To Persons Who Can Ward Off Hackers

04. August 2011

Microsoft windows 7. (Photo: alysband.com)

Computer hackers have been existing ever since the first computer was launched and nobody can deny the fact that hackers can be elusive enough to avert even the most complex firewall programs. But now times are taking a turn for the better because internet big shots like Facebook or Google are already thinking out of the box, by using the help of computer experts to fix programming flaws on their website, thus preventing their websites from being hijacked by hackers. But according to reports on Wednesday, Microsoft executives are using more vocal strategies to deal with bugs and computer hackers. According to the company’s website, Microsoft would pay a large sum of prize money to anyone who can avert a cyber attack that could potentially harm their business.

This program is different from the ‘Bug Bounty’ program by Google because it promises to pay out large sums of prize money in cash, rather than small bounty rewards. This initiative is known as the BlueHat program and it will pay out as much as $250k to a computer expert who will devise a strategy to overcome hack attacks to its website. According to Matt Thomlinson, who is the product manager for the company, Microsoft has launched this initiative in order to battle the rampant cyber attacks with innovative ideas, rather than spending millions of dollars on computer security.

There is no exact age threshold for taking part in this program and even though $250k is supposed to be the ideal cash prize, a programmer’s performance will be analyzed with other programmers and will be rewarded accordingly. The person who has done the best job can expect to receive $200k, while the second and third places can expect to get around $50k and $10k worth of prize and subscriptions respectively. The programmers will also be gifted in case they spot programming holes in the Microsoft programs by the internal judges of the company.

This is indeed a very innovative step taken by the software titan as this will encourage researchers and young computer programmers to unite against hackers. But there it is still relatively unknown on how hacker groups are going to react to this.

(rockefellernews/yk)

Rating: 9.0/10 (2 votes cast)

Written by Yash Karnad

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Written by Romeo Braceros

Microsoft Apologizes For Promotional Tool On Winehouse’s Death

26. July 2011

Software giant Microsoft is man enough to apologized to the fans and family of the late English singer Amy Winehoue for seemingly using her death to earn some money. (Photo: rc-id.blogspot.com)

Software giant Microsoft has apologized to the fans and family of the late singing star Amy Winehouse for using her death to earn money with their promotional scheme after her death.

On its Twitter account Monday, Microsoft apologized for its action saying they had no intention to take advantage on the death of the 27-year-old singer. “Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse ‘download’ tweet seemed purely commercially motivated,” Microsoft said.

“Far from the case, we assure you,” Microsoft added. It can be recalled that Microsoft became a target of online ire over the weekend after the same Twitter account posted an update inviting people to remember Winehouse by buying digital versions of her “Back to Black” album at social.zune.net.

The Zune website is Microsoft’s shop on the Internet for downloading music, films and other entertainment content to computers, smartphones, and Xbox 360 videogame consoles. Replies on Twitter criticized the Microsoft message as “crass” and “vile.”

The fans of the late singer said Microsoft is insensitive and capricious by taking advantage of their idol’s death to earn. Winehouse was found dead at her house on Saturday and the police are not treating it as suspicious. The cause of death remains unknown.

Winehouse is an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse’s 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

Her 2006 follow-up album, Back to Black, led to six Grammy Award nominations and five wins, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made Winehouse the first British female to win five Grammys,including three of the “Big Four”: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.On 14 February 2007, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist; she had also been nominated for Best British Album.

She won the Ivor Novello Award three times, one in 2004 for Best Contemporary Song (musically and lyrically) for “Stronger Than Me”, one in 2007 for Best Contemporary Song for “Rehab”, and one in 2008 for Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Love Is a Losing Game”, among other distinctions. The album was the third biggest seller of the 2000s in the United Kingdom.

Winehouse was credited as an influence in the rise in popularity of female musicians and soul music, and also for revitalising British music. Winehouse’s distinctive style made her a muse for fashion designers such as Karl Lagerfeld.

Winehouse’s problems with drug and alcohol abuse, violence, and her self-destructive behaviours were regular tabloid news from 2007 until her death. She and her former husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, were plagued by legal troubles that left him serving prison time.In 2008, Winehouse faced a series of health complications that threatened both her career and her life.

(rockefellernews/rb)

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A Nasty War Between Facebook And Google+

17. July 2011

A war is now brewing between social networking giant Facebook and newbie social networking site Google Plus. (Photo: buzzom.com)

For the past six years the largest social networking site Facebook has been enjoying an undisputed ruling on the social networking market. After the announcement of the web search giant Google’s new social networking site Google Plus, Facebook finally got a competitor. As a result a nasty war between the two sites has been created. Recently, Facebook has banned an advertisement of Google Plus on Facebook, which may be a great example of the war.

According to the Google+ account of the victim Michael Lee Johnson, a Web Application Developer, “I recently ran a Google+ advertisement on Facebook that got all of my campaigns suspended.”

He also received a warning from Facebook when he wanted to login his Facebook account after posting the advertisement on Facebook. In his Google+ account terming Facebook as Failbook he wrote, “The message from Failbook said the following: Your account has been disabled. All of your adverts have been stopped and should not be run again on the site under any circumstances. Generally, we disable an account if too many of its adverts violate our Terms of Use or Advertising guidelines. Unfortunately we cannot provide you with the specific violations that have been deemed abusive. Please review our Terms of Use and Advertising guidelines if you have any further questions.” But, he ensured that he was only banned from the advertising platform but his Facebook account was not affected.

The reason for the allegation was that he ran a Facebook ad asking people to add him to their Google Plus circles. The advertisement of Michael Lee Johnson on Facebook reads, “If you’re lucky enough to have a Google+ account, add Michael Lee Johnson, Internet Geek, App Developer, Technological Virtuoso.” Beside the advertisement he also added an image of his Google+ account wearing a nice cap.

Finally Michael Lee Johnson said that he does not know the ad policy on Facebook. He also said that if the advertisement of the rival’s products violates the ad policy on Facebook “Then Facebook seriously sucks in advertising business.”

First World War on internet, between Facebook and Google Plus, and the war is really very interesting. Another competitor may be a part of the War soon which would be the Software giant Microsoft’s Tulalip, according to the Mobile Magazine.

Whatever it is, the newly launched social networking site Google+ already has 10 million members, according to the recent statistics. Among the users of Google+ the CEO and founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg is the number one personality.

(rockefellernews/rd)

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Microsoft Launching Social Networking Site?

15. July 2011

Microsoft into social network? (Photo: cultofmac.com)

The rapid rise of social networking and the overnight success stories of the companies associated with it, has made every online business owner want a piece of the action. Even though, there may be at least a thousand companies who are planning to invest in social networking, the most notable one was Google. It is just been a month or so since the search engine had launched Google+ which has managed to attract over five million users, even though it is still in its beta stage. But just as the world is trying to digest the fact about Google+, there are new rumors which indicate that Microsoft may be launching its own social networking site!

According to Fusible.com, which is a website focusing on domain related news, Microsoft has absent mindedly managed to leak an image and info about its supposed social networking website. The leaked image was discovered at socl.com, which is a domain name owned by Microsoft. The name of the social networking website is rumored to be Tulalip.com, which allows users to find and share their passion or likes with others.

Even though the news of the website sprang up sometime this week, the image of Tulalip.com had been taken down on Friday morning, with a message claiming that the Microsoft team had launched the socl.com domain name by mistake as it was just an experimental project. But the Microsoft spokesperson declined to tell the press whether they plan to make a move in the social networking market or if the rumors about Tulalip.com are true or not.

Before anybody start jumping to any conclusions, Tulalip or whatever they want to call it, may not even be launched as the news is solely based on rumors. Even if a company like Microsoft does manage to get in the social networking market, it is not known whether it will actually succeed or not because the social networking market, like the internet in the early 2000s, may very well be a financial bubble.

(rockefellernews/yk)

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Written by Yash Karnad

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Microsoft To Reveal Windows 8 Pre-Beta Next Week!

07. July 2011

Microsoft to launch Windows 8 Pre-Beta soon. (Photo: windows8geek.com)

The greatest software developer and windows operating system provider Microsoft is going to unveil their pre-beta version of latest operating system Windows 8 from next week at its Worldwide Partner Conference, according to rumors on twitter account @MSFTtm and other sources.

The Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) will start by Microsoft on Monday July 11. It is expected that, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, will bring a new idea and strategy of the product roadmaps for the next financial year 2012. According to the rumor in the twitter account @MSFTtm on Tuesday, “At the WPC11 Microsoft will release a Commodity Technology Preview (CTP) build of Windows 8.”

In 2008, in the Microsoft’s PDC Conference they announced the Widows 7 pre-beta version and in the next year 2009, its beta version was published. There was also news in the tweet that, Microsoft will release the Windows 8 beta in the Build Conference on September 13 this year, in Anaheim, California.

Whatever the rumor dictates, the CEO of Microsoft recently announced that the new version of operating system will knock the market in 2012. Few weeks later after the announcement the Vice President of Microsoft said that the new operating system release will take place in the late 2012. And according to windows8release.com, the Windows 8 beta would be delivered for the public in the Build Conference in the mid-September next year. But, in January 2012 Microsoft will deliver the final release candidate test build of Windows 8.

(rockefellernews/rd)

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The World’s Shortest Man

12. June 2011

Being short is common to most people but nobody is as short as Junrey Balawing from Sindangan, Philippines. Today on 12th June 2011 not only was he celebrating his 18th birthday but also he has been ranked as the shortest man in the world.

Junrey Balawing has been declared the world’s shortest man. He measures just 59.93 centimeters which is an equivalent of 23.5 inches. During the interview his father who is a blacksmith explained that his son stopped growing when he was a toddler.

His name has been put in the Guinness Book of World Records, a book only the special chosen few get to appear. “ Officially he is the world’s shortest man,’’ said Craig Glenday, editor in chief of the Guinness Book of World Records who took Junrey’s measurements.

Apart from the shocking news of him being the shortest man in the world. Junrey Balawing birthday went on well and got lot of cash from politicians and well wishers.

Rating: 7.0/10 (3 votes cast)

Written by Nelly

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Lady Gaga has gone completely gaga

11. June 2011

Lady Gaga seems to be on an unleashing streak once again! With this budding 25years musician you can expect anything.This woman can be so crazy at times and to crown it all she feels absolutely nothing and doesn’t give a hoot!

At an open fashion party, Lady Gaga turned out in a tight thong, green wig and Oh my God! her boobs were all out and she was proudly showing off her black tits. Everyone was so shocked and all eyes kept glued on her. She stole all the attention of the event.

With this Lady Gaga’s weird stunts, she’s is going to bare it all. She seems to be appearing in public with less and less on her body as time goes by, but this….was just the mother of them all. Lady Gaga has often reiterate that to her money means nothing to her, she has only bought a Rolls Royce and a heart valve.

She has pulled off a bold move that took a long time for many celebs to achieve, she’s baring it all in record time. She was quoted saying,“Maybe we should be more timeless. Maybe we should just wear a classic black suit all the time or just nudity! That way is always in style!” Nobody wants to imagine how the next episode will be like.

Rating: 9.5/10 (4 votes cast)

Written by Nelly

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