Developages - Development and Technology Blog

The time-honored tradition of code scavanging has long been a way for new programmers to “break in″ to a new language or task that they may not want to build from the ground up. The re-use of old code, cleaned up and tweaked to a new purpose can help developers learn many useful skills and accomplish tasks quickly, especially for small tasks that aren′t of vital importance. One blogger wondered if this process could be formalized and tools could be built to help foster and enable code scavanging on a mass level. Is this a viable option, or are there just too many things to consider?

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Original post by ScuttleMonkey

Filed under: GPS, Transportation

If you’ve balked at the prices automakers are charging for integrated navigation systems, you should really take a look at what ¥300,000 ($2,746) would buy you in 1981. That atrocity you see above was an actual option in Honda’s Accord during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, and while it didn’t sync up with any satellites, it did help to guide you along in some form or another. The Electro Gyrocator, as it was so eloquently named, accepted transparencies of maps and utilized a gas gyroscope that allowed the map to move with the motion of the car and plot your progress. Once a certain map ran out of road, you just popped the next one in and kept on cruisin’. And here we are kvetching about whether our portable navigator has 10 or 11 million POIs…

[Via Autoblog]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Storage

We′re not sure this is still relevant — the patent was filed in May of 2006 — but the USPTO has just published a patent application from Apple detailing a number of different 8cm to 12cm optical disk adapters. The application, credited to Tony Fadell, chief of the iPod division, says that since most software doesn′t take up all of the available storage on a disk, it would be cheaper and simpler to use the 8cm disks when appropriate — but that having to ship a standard adapter for slot-loading drives reduce any costs, because they′re the same size as 12cm disks. The solution is to make the adapters smaller when they′re not in use, and the filing goes on to detail several different folding and multi-part takes on the idea. Considering that such an adapter would make things slightly more complicated for the vast majority of Apple’s all-slot-loading installed base, we can′t see these ever actually shipping, but it’s still an interesting idea.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Nilay Patel

Roland Piquepaille writes “The European Union has funded an ambitious project related to wearable technology. The project, named WearIT@work, will end in one year and invested funds are expected to exceed 23 million euros. The goal is to replace traditional interfaces, such as screen, keyboard or computer unit, by speech control or gesture control without modifying the applications. This wearable system is currently being tested in four different fields including aircraft maintenance, emergency response, car production and healthcare.”

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Original post by Zonk

Filed under: Networking

Remember that blisteringly fast channel bonding modem Comcast showed off earlier this year? Turns out that the firm’s CEO is apparently aiming to roll out internet services that can reach up to 160Mbps down / 120Mbps up sometime in 2008. As in, next year. In a recent interview with Fortune, Brian Roberts stated that service based on DOCSIS 3.0 technology would start “rolling out″ sometime in 2008, and casually noted that it should provide “more than enough bandwidth to do multiplayer online gaming.” Additionally, Cable Digital News explains that the firm has plans to cover some 20-percent of its footprint with the uber-quick service before 2009, and while we′re left to guess what areas will be covered, we′d bet locales fetching FiOS could entertain some competition. Granted, we′ve still got aways to go before we can go toe-to-toe with a certain Swede, but we’ll take any progress we can get.

[Via ArsTechnica, image courtesy of AFP / BBC]
Read - Fortune interviews Comcast CEO Brian Roberts
Read - Comcast closes in on 100Mbit/s

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Portable Audio

As far as we know, Evergreen’s Business Card MP3 Player doesn’t come pre-loaded with Flight of the Conchords’ most relevant jam, but you can’t deny it’d be a great fit. This all-white, ultra-simplistic DAP checks in at 86- x 55- x 6-millimeters, weighs just 36-grams and includes 1GB of storage space. You’ll also find a flip-out USB 2.0 connector, internal speaker and some sort of recording function. Slip one into your tight leather jacket pocket for a steep $126.19 — it should make sorting the recycling much less tedious.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

narramissic writes “A report released Thursday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) finds that Comcast continues to use hacker-like techniques to slow down customers’ connections to some P-to-P (peer-to-peer) applications. The EFF said that Comcast appears to be injecting RST, or reset, packets into customers’ connections, causing connections to close. ‘The investigators say that their tests confirmed an earlier one conducted by the Associated Press that showed that Comcast is interfering with BitTorrent traffic. BitTorrent is a protocol used to efficiently distribute the online transmission of large files, and some entertainment companies have partnered with its creators to distribute its content online. Comcast has said that it doesn’t block BitTorrent, or any kind of content.’” If you′re the type that always looks for a silver lining, Comcast’s skulduggery may be pushing Congress to reconsider Net Neutrality.

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Original post by Zonk

Let me start off my letter by saying the owner of this site (Joel Johnson) and a contributor (myself, Travis Hudson) are both former northeast Kansas residents who love Boulevard beers. Myself and Joel (note that I am speaking on behalf of him) frown upon your limited midwest distribution, especially after we both moved away from the midwest.

Upon visiting the Sigel’s Liquor at Fitzhugh and Cole in Uptown Dallas this evening, I discovered the 12-beer variety pack of your fine Boulevard brew and my heart dropped to the ground. I was forced to stop and ask the nearest patron what city I was in and it was indeed Dallas, but there was Boulevard beer at the liquor store. It was all so surreal.

The only Boulevard offering was the variety pack, but I know you will soon bring more and more until Boulevard overtakes Shiner as the “local” beer in Dallas. Thanks again for making this weekend (and all of the following weekends) the best yet in this shithole known as Dallas (zing!).

XOXOXO,
Travis Hudson

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Original post by travis

Here’s the schedule for tonight @ the Blip Festival 2007, I′m a fan of Loud Objects, see you there! … - Link.

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Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

Filed under: Cellphones

Barely a fortnight after Apple began talking with China Mobile about getting the iPhone into the ginormous Chinese market, it seems that negotiations are off — or still on, or something. Yesterday, Nanfang Daily reported that China Mobile’s CEO felt that the “iPhone model was not suitable for China,” but unnamed reporters suggested that the real reason behind the call-off was the inability for both entities to agree on — surprise, surprise — a revenue sharing model. Today, however, a report over at Bloomberg notes that Apple has in fact not ended discussions with China Mobile, and moreover, it was said to have “denied newspaper reports” claiming otherwise. ‘Course, we’ve got two sides of the story here, and while Apple may feel that there’s still room to negotiate, China Mobile may see things quite differently. Time will tell, we guess.

[Via Macworld]
Read - Nanfang Daily report
Read - Bloomberg report

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Ask Engadget, Cellphones, Features

You might’ve noticed the recent uptick in mobile industry news, which comes courtesy of the annual Mobius conference currently taking place in Amsterdam. It’s pretty clear that the future is bright, what with 700MHz, 4G, a new Windows Mobile, Android, and a 3G iPhone all on the way, but what about the here and now? What we’re wondering is:

“What’s the best 3G smartphone currently available in the States?”

And yes, we mean 3G. You know, that hip cool thing that Apple isn’t terribly fond of, which brings high speed internets, effective tethering, streaming video and music downloads on the run — while supposedly beating battery life to a pulp. We’re also talking about what’s available in the here and now, but it could very well just be time to wait for the next great thing to come along, so be sure to let us know if that’s the case for you. If you′d your own question answered, you can to hit us up at ask at engadget dawt com.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Paul Miller

Wireless earbuds,
You do not bring me the joy
I hoped for. Oh well.

—Tim Gideon

For the full-length, free-verse RCA Jet Stream review check out PCMag.com.

Original post by Blogging Molly

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

It’s been a tick since we’ve seen a swank new projector from SIM2, but on paper, it looks like the wait was worth it. The firm’s new-generation version of the Grand Cinema C3X (dubbed C3X 1080) features a gorgeous Giorgio Revoldini-designed chassis, TI’s brand new DarkChip 4 DLP device, a 10-bit video processor, HD scaling and deinterlacing capabilities, 1080⯘ support, a 10,000:1 contrast ratio and color-management software that enables installers to “precisely match each projector to its home theater environment.” Additionally, you’ll find a pair of selectable HDCP-compliant HDMI jacks, component / S-Video / composite / VGA ports, RS-232 / USB control sockets, IR-sensor inputs, 12-volt trigger outputs and an optical digital audio socket. This 22-pounder, which ships in high-gloss gunmetal, black, red and gold, is likely to keep your eyes affixed for days on end, but only if you’ve got $31,995 to spare. Check out a few more colors in the gallery over at Engadget HD, and watch the drool, will ya?

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Original post by Darren Murph

Random BedHead Ed writes “Good news everyone! After a five year vanishing act the sci-fi spoof Futurama returned this week with a direct-to-DVD feature. Wired has an article about its return, including the story of the show’s origins, a behind the scenes gallery, interviews with creators Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, and some interesting trivia. For example, did you know the ship has an overbite like a Simpson’s character? Or that the show’s title is taken from an exhibition at the 1939 Worlds Fair?.” We just talked about this a bit the other day, too, in reference to a great interview on TVSquad.

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Original post by Zonk

Na atualização do dia 04 de dezembro, o Xbox 360 vai passar a suportar vídeos .AVI em codecs Xvid e Divx. Ele poderá rodar esses vídeos tanto em dispositivos conectados pelas portas USB dele (pen drive, disco rígido externo), em CDs/DVDs ou até mesmo do Windows Media Player de um PC com Windows (via streaming) sem a necessidade de codecs. As especificações sobre o suporte de novos codecs podem ser encontradas aqui (em inglês). A lista completa de novidades dessa atualização está aqui.

Original post by Galileu Vieira