Researchers use distributed computing and robots to create programmable matter

Http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9140729/Intel_says_shape_shifting_robots_closer_to_reality

Imagine a day when you can make your cell phone smaller to fit into your pocket easier, or take it out and make it bigger to text more easily. Maybe you want to make it into a headset for hands free talking, or turn it into a bracelet for quick jog. Accordiing to researchers at intel and carnegie mellon university, the dreams could soon become a reality. Scientists are earning to make shapeshifting a reality by using distributed computing and robotics. They take millions of millimeter sized robots, and through software and electromagnetic forces, enable them to take on varios shapes and sizes. The programable matter is called claytronics and the tiny robots are called catoms. These catoms have incredible technology. For instance, each cotom will have its own processor, and will the ablitity to store and share information, they are miniature computers. there are endless possibilities for these incredible little robots. Take for example someone living in very limited space in a small apartment. They could turn their dinner table into a poker table for poker night, and then into their bed at the end of the day! Instead of gamers watching a tv, they could have animated figures running around their houses. Or if you needed to speak to a co-worker on the other side of the world about some figures, you could have a 3d facsimile of him or her sitting right in your office.

I think this is absolutely fantastic technology that, when perfected, will bocome an everyday part of our lives. I do not see this kind of technology being cheap, but i do see enough people wanting to get their hands on it, that it wont matter whether it is cheap or not.

Google Wave: It's innovative, but is it truly useful?

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9139701/Google_Wave_It_s_innovative_but_is_it_truly_useful_?taxonomyId=16&pageNumber=1
"Currently in a controlled beta that everyone wants to try out, Google Wave has enormous potential -- and serious limitations"(Preston Gralla). Just what is this google wave? Google Wave is a new collaborative tool that works in real-time, and has the potential to be an ideal way for members of a group to work with one another. Think of it as a mashup of threaded e-mail conversations and instant messaging, on steroids; It has Rich content, including Google maps, interactive polling, videos and more, that can all be embedded directly in to your conversations (called waves). This apears to be an incredible tool to use in the work place, and for recreation. Your waves can be public or private. Only people you've invited to a private wave can view it or participate in it, while anyone can view or participate in a public wave. You need to be extremely careful about what waves you make public. During beta testing, a serious security hole was found, one of a persons private waves was turned into a public wave without their knowledge. They had added the Bloggy gadget to a wave, but because the gadget didn't ask for any log-in or blog information, they assumed that the wave was not published as a blog. It wasn't, but the gadget made the wave public without telling them. They only learned that the wave had been made public when someone They didn't know joined it and warned Them that the wave had gone public. Although, for a service built for communication, it's surprising how much of an island Google Wave is; it doesn't even integrate with Gmail, much less other mail clients and services. There also are no links to social networking sites or instant messaging tools, suprisingly, not even Google Talk. I think that this sounds like a wonderful tool to use, not just for fun, but also to take the place of e-mailing back and forth. What would have taken days is now mere minutes. That saves alot of time, and time is money. I like the general idea of this but so many people are set in their ways that i do not believe that this will be a very popular item for anyones fork day for much except fun. Like its name, i believe Google wave is just that, a wave. It can come to a towering peak, but all waves come crashing down eventually.

Panasonic and the 3d TV

Have you ever watched TV in your house and wanted something more? Well Panasonic has introduced its new 3d TV this past Monday morning to give you just that. This 3d sensation is achieved by rapid switching of the screen pixels with new PDP materials and chips so that pixels can be illuminated faster without sacrificing overall screen brightness. The TV was unveiled in Osaka at the company headquarters, and will make a public appearance next week near Tokyo at Ceatec electronics. Not only is Panasonic exploring with this new technology; Sony has announced its plans for a 3d TV, and they plan to use 3d technology in their gaming system, the PS3.

I think this is a great idea, but I don’t see these televisions being very affordable right away, but Maybe as time goes on prices will come down. I think that they would be a great amount of fun and a lot of people will like them, but I don’t think many people will buy them right off the bat. Most people already have big high def televisions and don’t need to buy something like this just yet.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9138595/Panasonic_shows_prototype_3D_plasma_TV

Auctionfire.com critique

I am critiquing a prominent company doing business on the web using 6 rules adhered to by the electronic commerce industry and will rate it on a 1-5 scale for each rule, with 5 being the best. The web site I am to critique is auctionfire.com. This web site is an online auction site that allows users to create a profile and bid against other users for whatever their hearts desire.
The first rule I am to adhere to is that the web site should offer something unique. I believe that this web site meets this requirement by allowing free listing and image hosting for products, whereas other sites will charge for these features. I give this site a 3 for this rule. The second rule is that the web site must be aesthetically pleasing. The color schemes seem to do well but their main page seems cluttered to me. There are images that draw your attention but they bring your attention to the respective actions, which is what the goal is. I give this area a 3 as well. The third rule is the web site must be easy to use and fast. The web sites loads very fast, even with the amount of images for the auctions, but is not easy to navigate. If I wanted to look at multiple one auction categories I would have to continuously go back to the main page. This would be much easier to navigate if they kept the side menu as you navigate through the page. I give this aspect a 3 yet again. The fourth rule is that the web site must motivate people to visit. I feel they accomplish this fairly well by offering the ability to make a login profile, free listing, and image hosting, as well as have a constant change of merchandise. I give this aspect a yet another 3. Rule number 5 is to advertise their presence on the web. When searching “auction” on Google auctionfire.com is the ninth site down on the first page, which is fairly good considering how many auction sites there is out there. I could not find any related sites that listed them though. I will give them a 4 in this category. The last rule is that I should learn from the web site. I used alexa.com to check information and statistics on how well they perform, how many views they get, and what they view. In the average month each users spends an average of 1.3 minutes on their site, and only viewing 2 pages each on average, not keeping their attention very long. I will give them a 3 in this category as well.
A couple ways I think they could improve their web site is to keep their auction menu throughout the site, and unclutter their pages a tad. Other than these few things i think this web site does a decend job.
For this blog I used pages 208-210 in the book information4e systems today, managing in the digital world, the web site alexa.com, and auctionfire.com.

Blog assignment 2

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/browsers/showarticle.jhtml?articleID=219400649



This is an article focused on the pros and cons of different web browser including firefox, IE Safari, opera, google chrome, and IE8. It explaines why the mojority of users on each browser use that specific browser and not the others, for example, chromes speed and firefox huge library of third-party add-ons.

I personlly agree that each and every browser has its own ups and downs but not necicarily that one is better than the other. I am always talking to one person or another about why i use this one when they think that one is better. I prefer to use IE8 or google chrome, but have used all the browsers listed and dont think any are better or worse than the others.

My First Post

Hi! My name is Tim Belew. I was born in Melbourne, FL and lived there until i was 9 years old. I then moved to Sharon, S.C., a tiny town no one has ever heard of just outside York county. i lived in S.C. for about 5 years before moving up to Southwest VA. I'v now lived in VA for about 5 years. My major is computer sciences and information technology and i am most interested in web design. Websites i utilize on a regular basis are Yahoo for mail and facebook to keep in touch with my friends and family, Youtube when i have freetime, and google to search any and everything.