I thought I’d comment on an item which could be set for potentially big things in 2008.

Technology required to support a wireless monitor was first shown at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), since then DisplayLink(http://www.displaylink.com/) technology has been combined with technology from Alereon (http://www.alereon.com/) to create an adapter set that will allow existing monitors to be used as wireless displays. This will be shown at CES 2008. Later, the necessary wireless technology can be incorporated into the monitor itself.

The system works by converting the graphics data into packets which can be sent over a USB connection. A USB transmitter sends the packet data to a receiver on the monitor where it is converted back into the required graphics data for display. This mechanism will support resolutions of up to 1680×1050 and 16.7 million colours.

Wireless USB is based on the WiMedia Alliance UWB common radio platform, which is capable of sending 480 Mbps at distances up to 3 meters and 110 Mbps at up to 10 meters. It operates in the 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz frequency range and spreads communication over an ultra-wideband of frequencies.

HD support is something that will have to wait for the future, though, as the current offering will not provide the bandwidth required for HD.

It’s that time of year when we start to read a lot about "the best of 2007" and "things to watch for 2008".

One of my own favourites, which I noticed during 2007, is the 3D printer from Desktop Factory.

http://www.desktopfactory.com/

This is a printer which "prints" 3D models (to a maximum size of 5×5x5 inches), from a composite plastic powder at an estimated cost of about $1 per cubic inch.

What attracted my attention to this device was the price - at $4995 its a fraction of the cost of typical industrial machines and brings it (almost) within reach of the home (hobbyist) user.

Currently the web-site is offering the opportunity to "reserve" one of these printers - so it is not clear when they will actually be shipping the product, but if they can meet this price band its surely a winner - now I’m just waiting for the $500 3D printer …

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Microsoft is preparing for the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP by making available a Release Candidate (RC) version. (18 Dec 2007)

Currently intended for testing purposes only, it is available for download from the Microsoft Download Center (although Microsoft does not recommend installing this software on primary or mission critical systems and recommends that you have a backup of your data prior to installing any pre-release software).

This service pack is a rollup of all previously released updates for the Windows XP operating system. Although it contains a small number of new enhancements it will not significantly change the customers experience, according to details released in the document "Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3"

It is interesting to speculate whether the release of this service pack, which is scheduled for the first half of next year (2008),  will significantly extend the life of Windows XP …

Remind me again, Why should I upgrade to Windows Vista?

Recently noticed a project which explores how to create a multi-touch whiteboard using a Wiimote (The remote input device that is supplied with the Wii game console).

Essentially you create an LED flashlight that you use as a pen and this is detected by the infrared camera in the wiimote. The wiimote is positioned so that it can see the pen tip at all times and when used in conjunction with a projector it is possible to turn any surface, such as a table-top or even an LCD screen, into a "touch" tablet surface.

The wiimote can be used to track up to 4 devices at the same time so 2 "light pens" can be used to simulate a multi-touch device.

Although the tracking resolution will never be as good as a commercially available device, this system is sure to find an enthusiastic group of users.

More details at

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

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Microsoft Live Labs Volta helps developers who build distributed applications on the .NET platform, using the Microsoft development stack (programming languages, libraries, and Visual Studio).

The Volta technology preview is a developer toolset that enables you to build multi-tier web applications by applying familiar techniques and patterns. First, design and build your application as a .NET client application, then assign the portions of the application to run on the server and the client tiers late in the development process. The compiler creates cross-browser JavaScript for the client tier, web services for the server tier, and communication, serialization, synchronization, security, and other boilerplate code to tie the tiers together.

The current version of Volta supports applications that run on the Microsoft CLR, a JavaScript-enabled browser, or a combination of the two.

In essence Volta is a re-compiler. Volta works on MSIL rather than on a textual source language and rewrites MSIL into any number of target languages, including (today) JavaScript and MSIL itself.

Full details and download are available from:

http://labs.live.com/volta/

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