The Phi Beta Kappa Society

We know there is the famous Phi Beta Kappa Society....

so we decided to do a little more research on the popular use of such Greek letters...

Apparently... we found that there is also the...
Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity
Gamma Phi Beta International Sorority
Gamma Beta Phi Society
Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Beta Sigma Phi Online
Delta Lambda Phi National Social Fraternity
Alpha Beta Gamma (International honor society)
Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity
.... [and the list continues forever]

well... Greek letters make the world go round...

WiMAX - The future is here

WiMAX is one of the fastest growing emerging sectors within the world’s telecoms industry, with the global market potential estimated to be worth up to $1bn in 2007 and $4bn by 2010, according to recent research from analyst firm Maravedis.

From Vnunet

Remarkably true...
WiMAX has the potential to enable entire cities to go wireless. Imagine by 2010, we have the whole of San Francisco, Singapore, New York City, Taipei wireless!
As the technological tide rises, we go with the trend and ride the tide.

Star Wars Halloween Masks

We think this is very funny...

Presenting... Allan Greenspan as Yoda!
Allan Greenspan a wise old sage? like Yoda? hm... maybe Yoda is just a little too green.

To find out more, check out this Forbes article.

Post-it Software

What happens when you cross a Post-it® Note with a computer? Post-it® Software Notes - the classic yellow note designed for your PC!
(I understand this is quite "old", but fyi only.)

30Gigs.com

For those who thinks that Gmail's 2.6 GB is insufficient... you might want to try 30gigs. Yes, 30GB of email storage!

Pico Satellites

The first European satellite to be designed and built by students has launched successfully from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russia's northern spaceport.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/27/students_get_high/
One more small step for a man, but a big step for mankind.

REST

REST is a term coined by Roy Fielding in his Ph.D. dissertation to describe an architecture style of networked systems. REST is an acronym standing for Representational State Transfer.

I understand that this stuff may sound abstract, but it is useful (and practical).
This page gives a good summary of what REST is.
While this page gives you the actual dissertation by Roy Fielding, which he calls "Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures"

REST is fundametally useful... because it is a "lightweight" approach, as compared to heavier models such as SOAP. In fact, it is much simple to implement REST than SOAP.

Great Firewall of China

Everyone has heard of the Great Wall of China... but what is the Great Firewall of China? Simply put, this interesting term is a word play on internet censorship in mainland China. So, when you go to China, don't expect to access all the websites you previously could. But do remember to enjoy the scenery.

Web 2.0

There have been so much talk about Web 2.0. So is Web 2.0 the "next big thing"? What exactly is it?

Read this article to find out more.

Flock Web Browser

Flock Web Browser, hailed as the "first 2.0 Web Browser" is out!
Flock offers some very cool features, while based Mozilla Firefox's principles.
Here are some screenshots.

Technorati: Flock

Selective Logging Fails to Sustain Rainforest

The gist:
A four-year, comprehensive survey of the Amazon Basin in Brazil reveals that selective logging--the practice of cutting down just one or two tree species in an area--creates an additional 60 to 123 percent more damage than deforestation alone
Read more here.

This is a paramount piece of news. After all that we have been studying in Geography... are we to learn that selective logging is actually more damaging, contrary to what many people believe? Are decades of scholars wrong? What impact will it have on future policies in Brazil? What stand will Green Groups now take?

Blog Trends

http://www.technorati.com/weblog/2005/10/53.html

Some very good statistics on the way blogs are going...
its a rather impressive phenomenon...

just like people were busy signing up for email accounts 5 years ago..
everyone is getting a blog nowadays...
Another 5 years from now, blogs can become as mainstream as email.

OpenOffice 2.0 Released!

With new features, advanced XML capabilities and native support for the OASIS Standard OpenDocument format, OpenOffice.org 2.0 gives users around the globe the tools to be engaged and productive members of their society.

OpenOffice 2.0 is the first office system to give support for the OpenDocument format.

Support opensource. Use OpenOffice.

Tango Desktop Project

The Tango Desktop Project exists to create a consistent user experience for free and Open Source software with graphical user interfaces.
And also check out the Tango Icon Library.

Rich Dad Poor Dad

Here is another good article by Robert Kiyosaki, author of bestseller "Rich Dad Poor Dad."

Google Hires GAIM Developer

It seems that Google has hired Sean Egan, GAIM developer, to work on Google Talk.
This makes a lot of sense as GAIM and Google Talk are IM software. In addition, it is also important to make Google Talk compatible on the open platform (looking at the direction Google is heading).

From http://gaim.sourceforge.net/:
Working at Google
I (Sean) have been hired by Google, moved to Seattle, and have been working on the Google Talk team for about a month and a half. The goal of Google Talk is to make real-time communication as open as possible, and in that regard, I've been working to offer all of Google Talk's features into other clients. Currently, I'm working on making it as easy as possible for other clients to use Google Talk's voice features. You can expect Gaim and other clients to be interoperable with Google Talk's voice features in the near future.

Anti-Plagiarism Software

With the internet, plagiarism is an important and serious issue in today's academic arena, any many academic institutions are turning to "Anti-Plagiarism Software" to police against plagiarism or "cheating using copy and paste techniques" as it is more popularly known.

So... how effective are these softwares?

Lets take a look at some comments:
University of Melbourne
The Digital Collegian
The Stanford Daily Online Edition


Bottom line? Anti-plagiarism software is useful, but it is not foolproof.
It is really up to the algorithm...

Microsoft Codename Max

Microsoft Codename Max is a new photo sharing program built on Windows Vista WinFX technology. Works on Windows XP SP2 (but may not work on Windows Vista, yet)

The screenshots look really cool. Seems that Microsoft's new strategy is to pump tons of efforts in design.

Core Move by Apple

Here is a good article, detailing some facts [good to know].

Apple shipped 1,236,000 Macintosh units and 6,451,000 iPods during the quarter – that's 48 per cent growth in Macs and 220 per cent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

For the whole year, the company generated revenue of $13.93 billion and a net profit of $1.335 billion – representing annual growth of 68 per cent and 384 per cent, respectively, and it was the highest annual revenue and net profit in its history.

Apple USB Modem

This is an Apple USB Modem.
It costs US$49, looks good, portable, and it is USB plug & play.
White, simple and elegant - Apple style.

Harriet Miers for Supreme Judge?

Among the rarest honors that President Bush bestows is induction into the Hundred Degree Club.
What does this mean? Think of Bush's ranch in Texas, and think of the temperature.

Have a good laugh by reading this CNN article on Harriet Miers.

Autodesk acquires Alias for $182 mn

Autodesk, the company behind industry-standard animation and 3D software 3D Studio Max, will acquire Alias, the company behind the Academy Award-winning 3D application Maya.

Maya is used widely by the world's entertainment companies, including Industrial Light & Magic (think George Lucas) and DreamWorks.


The acquisition will bring together 2 of the world's best software in 3D, and this will certainly be beneficial to many in future.

And this is the 100th post! Hooray!

DARPA Grand Challenge

A few days ago, The Straits Times reported:
SINGAPORE Technologies Kinetics' Spider Light Strike Vehicle (LSV) will be racing through the desert for a US$2 million (S$3.36 million) prize.

Apparently...
The Cornell team started with one of the most rugged off-road vehicles available, a Spider Light Strike Vehicle, manufactured and donated by Singapore Technologies.
Read more about it here.

And if you are interested to find out more, check out the DARPA Grand Challenge webpage.

Note: DARPA is a US military agency. DARPA stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Sin (1/x)

How does the graph of y = sin(1/x) look like?

And upon further investigation...


it appears that there exist an infinite number of solutions for which sin(1/x) = 0, and there are wild oscillations near the point x = 0.

Circumcircle

A circumcircle is a a circle that passes through all vertices of a plane figure and contains the entire figure in its interior.

All triangles have circumcircles.

More Behind Nano

Online guerilla bites Apple