...from:
http://www.gadling.com/2008/11/26/so-how-well-do-these-digital-boarding-pas…
So how well do these digital boarding passes work?
by Grant Martin Nov 26th 2008 @ 10:30AM
Digital boarding passes in this eco-friendly, high-tech world are the
next new big thing among the big airlines. Continental, American and
Northwest are rolling out service to airports all over the country,
and if you haven't got a kiosk at your local airport, there is
probably one on the way.
In concept, the system is pretty simple. When you check in online,
instead of printing off your boarding pass you're given the option to
receive it digitally onto your phone or PDA. In addition to saving
paper, the big advantage is that those on the go without a printer can
just flash the barcode (it's actually a matrix code) at security and
at the gate then not have to worry about the slip of paper.
In actuality, the system still needs some time to get going – or
rather, the airport employees still need some time to adapt.
This past Friday on the way to New York's LaGuardia airport I was
given the chance to try out a digital boarding pass on my iPhone.
After the jump I'll tell you how it went.
In the two weeks that I had been away from Detroit, McNamara terminal
incorporated the barcode system into their gate and security
checkpoints. Forgetting that the system was in place when checking in
for my regular New York bound flight that Friday, I was surprised to
find that e-boarding was an option, so had to give it a try.
From my desktop terminal at work, getting the boarding pass was easy.
I went through the normal online check in procedure and instead of
clicking "Check in and print boarding pass" I selected the e-boarding
pass option and hit continue. The software then asked me for my
carrier (AT&T), device (iPhone) and mobile phone number, digested them
and sent me a text (SMS) message containing an online link to the
pass. Opening that page with Safari gave me a one-page boarding pass
with the QR code and gate information which I took my merry way to the
airport.
Walking up to the security checkpoint at McNamara terminal, I
cheerfully greeted the TSA agent with my iPhone and driver's license
extended.
"Oh.... one of those," she said. The agent reached in front of her to
a device just smaller than a breadbox, flipped a switch on the back of
it and a red light illuminated at the top. Gesturing to me, I flipped
my phone face down on to the window and let it sit. Nothing happened.
Gently I waved the phone back and forth.
"Stop that," she scolded me, and asked me if my backlight was on. As
she poked at the machine a bit I turned the phone back to me and
zoomed in on the QR code. Then I flipped it back over to the red light
and it immediately accepted it. The agent silently gave my ID back and
ushered me into the security line, where after a brief wait I found
myself pushing my belongings through the X-ray. But what to do with
the boarding pass that I was supposed to show the metal-detector
wielding agent?
I waved my phone at him as my belongings were swallowed by the monster.
"Put it anywhere, just don't keep it on your body."
"It's got my boarding pass," I muttered, probably too quietly.
"Put it anywhere, just don't keep it on your body."
Okay. I tossed it in the vanishing bin and walked through the X-ray.
"Boarding pass?"
I told him it was on my phone and shrugged. The agent visibly rolled
his eyes and paused.
"I'll.... just need to pat you down." He felt the pockets of my
sweater and my jeans, turned me around and patted my lower back. Then
he sent me on my way, ushering for the next passenger to pass under
the magnetic arch.
Since I was a little late for my flight, I reached the gate only
twenty minutes before departure. By that time the boarding zone was
nearly empty and the gate agent was attending to a few stragglers.
Walking up to the gate I showed her my iPhone with the QR code still
zoomed in. She didn't bat an eye, gestured to another red light and I
flipped my iPhone over the top of it. The machine blipped happily,
like a child who has just eaten a grilled cheese sandwich, and passed
into the jetbridge, one sheaf of paper saved.
In summary, the system is works fairly well and I can see it being
fairly useful some day when I'm in a hurry on the way to the airport.
The small drawbacks I can foresee, which largely have to do with phone
battery life, can be planned around, and in the worst scenario you can
always get a paper copy. Once the TSA and airline staff are all up to
speed on procedure, I think that the technology will really gain
traction.
...from:
http://www.oto-online.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1202&It…
GE nears 1TB storage
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Imagine storing 200 DVDs on one disc? GE Global Research is working on
it. Specifically, GE is designing a next-generation optical data
storage technology that will fit at least 1 terabyte (TB) of
information on a standard CD-size disc.
This is not only equivalent to 200 DVDs, but also 40 Blu-ray Discs.
GE's approach to this next-generation technology is called single-bit
micro-holographic data storage and uses microscopic holograms
throughout the volume of the plastic disc to store information.
The GE technique goes beyond the traditional surface-based storage
technology to use an entire volume to store data in 40-50 layers, Todd
Alhart, a spokesman for GE Global Research, told One to One. Potential
applications for this technology extend from the individual consumer
to professional domains.
In the consumer space, high-definition video formats and high-
resolution entertainment continues to grow and expand. "As a result,
consumer-generated content proliferates the corresponding requirements
for content storage and distribution," said Alhart. "In the
professional segment, information is increasingly generated in
bandwidth-hungry native digital format."
High-definition broadcast and motion picture video generation creates
new demands for long-term, high-density archival storage systems. In
addition, "medical imaging techniques are moving away from static-
information film to dynamic digital detection and storage that can
generate thousands of petabytes [1PB = 1,000TB] of electronic medical
records data each year," Alhart added.
Commercialisation for professional markets is targeted for 2011, and
some GE technology may start to penetrate consumer markets as soon as
2012.
...from:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/0704/1215054785022.htmlhttp://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/0704/1215054784815.html
Friday, July 4, 2008
3D printing: how does it work?
Video: navigate to http://www.mcortechnologies.com/ and click "NEW"
FAQ at: http://www.mcortechnologies.com/faq.html#3
THE MCOR Matrix printer creates an object out of paper from a computer-
generated CAD (computer-aided design) model.
A standard CAD file for a design is prepared for the printer by
proprietary MCor software, which renders the design into slices (each
slice for a single piece of paper).
About three reams of office paper are loaded into the machine to
produce the object, though several – as many designs as will fit the
size of an A4 sheet of paper stacked three reams high – can be made in
one go.
The paper is passed sheet by sheet into the printer and cut by a
tungsten carbine blade.
Each sheet is sprayed with nanoparticles of a water-based adhesive to
adhere to the next sheet and, slowly, the object is built from the
bottom up.
More adhesive goes on the cross-sections and less on the waste paper,
to reduce wastage. A sheet might have up to 48,000 dots of adhesive.
When finished – a process that takes several hours – the object comes
out still encased in the block of paper and is then popped out. It
looks and feels as if it is made from lightweight wood.
The model can then be coated with a special adhesive, sanded and
painted to give it a hard protective exterior.
The objects and waste are biodegradable and ecofriendly.
"This is a machine that will revolutionise the way things are designed
in the future," says chief executive Dr Conor MacCormack, who co-
founded the company in 2004 with his brother Fintan.
Before him on a table sit a solid model of a human hand, a motor
impeller, and a small hollow model of a house, all made in their
printer from compressed paper. The house took about eight hours to
produce, while the solid hand ran to 15 hours, he says.
The Mcor Matrix is now available direct in Ireland and the UK and it
is expected to be rolled out globally in 2009.
...from:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/07/windows-7-still-slated-for-2010-says-mic…
Windows 7 still slated for 2010 says Microsoft, Bill Gates just crazy-
talking
by Joshua Topolsky, posted Apr 7th 2008 at 6:58PM
If your pants / panties were in a "bunch" upon hearing news that
Windows 7 would be headed into your ever-loving arms "next year," you
might just want to hold off on those party invites for a little bit.
Sure, Bill Gates just happened to mention that we'd see a new version
of the OS "Sometime in the next year or so," but it's looking like
that "or so" makes a world of difference. Microsoft wants to chill
everyone out with the somber news that its got no plans to introduce
Windows 7 any earlier than January 2010 (three years from the launch
of Vista), and reassure us that crazy old Gates may have just been
talkin' developer speak. "As is standard with the release of a new
product, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its
general availability as a means to gain tester feedback," a spokesman
for Microsoft said, downplaying Gates' statement. Of course, this
means that XP's cutoff will suddenly move even further down the line,
which makes us wonder what the point of setting that June 2010 date
was in the first place. Why are you toying with us like this, Microsoft?
[Thanks, Tony]
READ
= - = - = - = - =
...FROM:
HTTP://WWW.ENGADGET.COM/2008/10/28/WINDOWS-7-DETAILS-GALORE-INTERFACE-TWEAK…
Windows 7 details galore: interface tweaks, netbook builds, Media
Center enhancements
by Nilay Patel, posted Oct 28th 2008 at 1:58PM
Microsoft's Windows 7 announcement earlier today was followed up by an
extensive demo of the new features during the PDC keynote, and since
then even more info about the new OS has flooded out, so we thought
we'd try to wrap up some of the more important bits here for you.
Microsoft seems to have done an impressive job at this early pre-beta
stage, folding in next-gen interface ideas like multitouch into the
same OS that apparently runs fine on a 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM,
but we'll see how development goes -- there's still a ways to go. Some
notes:
Obviously, the big news is the new taskbar, which forgoes text for
icons and has new "jump lists" of app controls and options you can
access with a right-click. You can select playlists in Media Player,
for example. Super cool: when you scrub over the icons, all the other
app windows go transparent so you can "peek" at the windows you're
pointing at.
Gadgets now appear on the desktop -- the sidebar has been killed. That
makes more sense for all those laptop owners out there with limited
screen space, and you can still see gadgets anytime by peeking at the
desktop, rendering all other windows transparent.
Window resizing and management now happens semi-automatically:
dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it, pulling it
down restores; dragging a window to the edges auto-resizes it to 50%
for quick tiling. Nifty.
The system tray now only displays what you explicitly say it should --
everything else is hidden, and the controls have been streamlined.
User Account Control settings are now much more fine-grained -- you
can set them by app and by level of access.
They demoed multitouch features on an HP TouchSmart PC -- it was
pretty cool, although the usual nagging "what is this good for /
that'll get old fast" concerns weren't really addressed. The Start
menu gets 25 percent bigger when using touch to make it easier to
handle, and apps will all get scroll support automatically. There's
also a giant on-screen predictive keyboard. Again -- could be amazing,
but we won't know until it's out in the wild.
We've always known Microsoft intends Windows 7 to run on netbooks, and
we got a small taste during the PDC keynote: Windows SVP Steve
Sinofsky held up his "personal" laptop running Windows 7, an unnamed
1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM that looked a lot like an Eee PC, and
said that it still had about half its memory free after boot. (We're
guessing it was running a VIA Nano, since most Atoms run at 1.6GHz.)
At the other end of the scale, Windows 7 supports machines with up to
256 CPUs.
Multiple-monitor management is much-improved, as is setting up
projectors -- it's a hotkey away. Remote Desktop now works with
multiple monitors as well.
Media Center has been tweaked as well -- it looks a lot more like the
Zune interface. There's also a new Mini Guide when watching video, and
a new Music Wall album artwork screensaver that kicks in when you're
playing music.
Devs got a pre-beta today; a "pretty good" feature complete beta is
due early next year. No word at all on when it'll be released to
market apart from that "three years from Vista" date we've known
forever.
That's just the good bits -- hit the read links for piles of more info
and screenshots, and we'll keep our eyes out for anything else
interesting. Exciting times!
Read - Keynote videos on the PDC site
Read - Technologizer Windows 7 hands-on
Read - Ars Technica Windows 7 interface walkthrough
Read - Laptop Windows 7 hands-on
Read - Windows 7 Media Center revealed
