Jan 06 17
A couple of samples I dug out while tidying my “archive” - these are dated August 2000
Jan 06 16
Modo from Luxology is an advanced polygonal subdivision surface modelling environment developed by “veterans” from Lightwave.
One of the interesting features I noted is the “Solid Sketch” functionality
Here’s a demo movie of the SolidSketch functionality
There’s also a user discussion forum for Modo available at
http://forums.luxology.com/discussion/
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Jan 06 11
On January 10, 2006, Autodesk completed the acquisition of Alias … Press Release at
Jan 06 10
IBM, of course, in #1 position with 2,972 patents but falling below 3,000 for the first time since 2001.
Details of the top 25, provided byIFI Patent Intelligence, a Wolters Kluwer business, are shown in a report on the Yahoo Financial News site.
IFI Patent Intelligence’s 2005 Top-25 Patent Winners
1 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP 2972
2 CANON K K JP 1837
3 HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT CO L P 1801**
4 MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO LTD JP 1720
5 SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD KR 1645
6 MICRON TECHNOLOGY INC 1561
7 INTEL CORP 1551
8 HITACHI LTD JP 1293
9 TOSHIBA CORP JP 1288
10 FUJITSU LTD JP 1168
11 SONY CORP JP 1149
12 GENERAL ELECTRIC CO 906
13 SEIKO EPSON CORP JP 888
14 INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES AG DE 804
15 KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N V NL 767
16 BOSCH, ROBERT GMBH DE 758
17 FUJI PHOTO FILM CO LTD JP 755
18 MICROSOFT CORP 746
19 TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INC 736
20 HONDA MOTOR CO LTD JP 730
21 SIEMENS AF DE 693
22 NEC CORP JP 673
23 SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC 654
24 DENSO CORP JP 645
25 MITSUBISHI DENKI K K JP 629** total includes 10 patents issued to Hewlett-Packard Co
http://biz.yahoo.com/…/nytu098.html?.v=35
IBM Aims to Improve Patents
A follow up on this story relates to an initiative by IBM to improve the quality of patents by improving the way applications are vetted.
The initiative will also work to establish open-source software itself as prior art against patent applications. To get there, the OSDL and IBM plan to work with Novell Inc., Red Hat Inc. and VA Software Corp.’s SourceForge.net to develop a system that stores source code in an electronically searchable format. This code repository, which IBM officials said will satisfy legal requirements to qualify as prior art, would allow patent examiners and the public to use open-source code to ensure that patents are issued only for new software inventions, according to the IBM statement.
Jan 06 10
Organic LED keyboard
Fully customisable keyboard using OLEDs (Organic LEDs) for every key.
A design concept for the future keyboard can be found at
http://www.legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=247
or the home page at
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/
Alternatively why not consider a Laser Keyboard
Some details available at
http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Jan 06 09
Further Details of the Sony eReader are available at
http://products.sel.sony.com/pa/PRS/reader_specs.html.
Its an ultra portable device (6″ SVGA 800×600 greyscale display with eInk technology) for reading (e)books or other documents, available spring 2006 ($349.99).
A replacement for the daily newspaper?
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite Jan 06 09
The Consumer Electronics Show took place in Las Vegas from January 5-8. - the worlds largest tradeshow for consumer technology
Here is a virtual trip report …
Bill Gates Keynote presentation at the show
http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx
Runs for about 1.5 hours, so the highlights I noted were:
10-20 mins: using technology at home and work - check out the large touch sensitive screen, and the 3 panel display used on Bills desk. Also noted the device where an image was projected onto a desktop from a mobile (smart)phone screen - touch the desk to interact with the mobile, also business card reader demo (place it on the desktop image and it will be read and inserted into your list of contacts).
25-35mins: showed some Vista stuff, I got the feeling I’d seen the functionality somewherre before … memories (photo) application (Picasa?), URGE - collaboration between Msoft and MTV (iTunes?) , Flip3D - 3d windows interface (similar to browsing feature seen in Picasa browser), Windows sidebar desktop widgets, Media player11 etc.
otherwise lots of stuff related to Xbox, entertainment collaboration etc. (Microsoft have teamed up with BSkyB for TV/video on demand)
You can browse the CES Innovations 2006 Awards Honorees at
http://www.cesweb.org/…/rd_2006honorees.asp
Other Gadget sites
from GearLive - an interview with a Vista Product Manager from the Driver Group describes the development, test and release process for Vista 10000 individuals, 200million lines of code, submission and build process, nightly builds etc.
http://www.gearlive.com/…/0108051321
An interesting read called Next Big Thing in 2006 by Don Dodge - of the Microsoft Emerging Business Team
http://dondodge.typepad.com/…/the_next_big_th.html
Microsoft Gadgets designed to provide information, useful lookup or service on your windows PC or the web
Inside Office 12 describes forthcoming features in Microsoft Office 12
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/office12_inside.asp
Identify stars in the night sky with the SkyScout from Celestron
http://www.celestron.com/skyscout/hp_land.php
Another take on the show can be found in an article by PC World staff
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