The few minutes that it takes for the computer to boot up are called the “black hole” of the digital age. During that time, there is nothing to do but wait and wait before one can log on. Have users become impatient or are the computers slow?

What do people do when waiting for the computer to boot up? While some people stare at the screen, others walk up and down or grab a hot cuppa. If it is time for brushing, then people do that too!

With all the complaints there have been of computer boot up time, the computer industry is forced to look into it and try and give back those precious seconds lost. Several of the major PC makers in the world are soon introducing “quick-start” computers. A few months back, we have mentioned that Hewlett-Packard is onto something in this arena in one of our articles titled, “Computers With Instant Start.” You can read that for more information and to understand how it works.

According to a senior executive of a company that makes quick-boot program from PC makers, it is ridiculous to expect people to wait patiently for a couple of minutes, in this day and age when people want instant-on. (more…)

Computers which are robots created by man to perform all the computing tasks, are being encouraged to develop a mind of their own and understand their creators better. They now are being programmed to respond to your emotions.

A new navigation system with the ability to provide emergency services with the quickest route while at the same time taking stress into account, has been developed by Trung Bui, a PhD candidate at the University of Twente. This dialogue system identifies users’ emotions and has the ability to react to them appropriately. (more…)

If you went to this music show and shot a video of your favorite rock star, and wish to share it with the world, you would obviously head over to YouTube. Why are people not considering the several alternatives?

When we think of video on the internet, the first thing that comes to mind is the Mogul of video, YouTube. No doubt YouTube’s popularity is unparalleled. There is certainly nothing wrong with YouTube and they have the distinction of spearheading the video sharing revolution. However, it is not necessarily the only site that can be used for posting videos on the Web.

Even if you decide to check out different video sharing sites, where would you go? Different people have different needs; while some have memories to store, others may wish to make a quick buck.

Here is a list of some video sharing sites which allow sharing of the videos and much more.

Tubemogul.com: This is a service that is provided by an online distribution and video analytics company. It helps marketers measure the impact their online marketing campaigns have. It allows uploading of video to all the main video sharing websites at one go. Users are also provided stats of when, where and how often their videos are watched. The most beautiful feature is the ability to track viewer demographics and geographics. With 100 MB being the upload limit, the major sites that are supported by this service are YouTube, MySpace video, AOL video, Google video, Yahoo video , Revver and Metacafe. (more…)

“How nice it would be if I could taste that food.” “What if I can touch things through the PC.”

I cannot be the only one who would have thought such things when using the computers as a youngster. The need to feel them is always there, although we know it’s all just virtual.

Carnegie Mellon University developed a controller that allows computer users to use their sense of touch along with the senses of sight and sound, in manipulating three-dimensional images and exploring virtual environments.

This device, created to use mostly for training, industrial purposes and for research, comes very close to the sensitivity of the human hand.

This haptic (devices that convey the sense of touch) device uses magnetic fields to replicate the response a hand has to textures and gravitational forces.

According to Ralph Hollis, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, “We believe this device provides the most realistic sense of touch of any haptic interface in the world today.”

This controller is said to have only one moving part and rests in a bowl like structure connected to the computer. Two controllers can be used simultaneously to pick up more objects (virtual) from the monitor.

Recently, a demonstration was held for the visitors of Hollis’ lab and they were invited to move an image of a pin across a plate of various textures, which caused the controller to bump along ripples, vibrate across fine striations and glide across smooth areas. On one computer, users were amazed that they could actually “feel” the contours of a virtual rabbit.

Hollis said that his researches created 10 such devices, out of which six were sent to other universities across the country and Canada. He said that a new company, Butterfly Haptics would begin marketing the device in June or July of this year.

The cost of this controller is said to be less than $50000, and may perhaps come with a bonus of a virtual surgeon, which allows people to operate on a virtual human organ and feel the tissue texture or even allow a designer to enjoy the feeling of fitting a part into a jet engine that is of course virtual.

Researchers say that this device can provide the most amazing and unbelievable experience, to the extent of users feeling the wind below the wings of military planes.

Hollis and his team did build a prototype of this device in 1997, but later they refined it and made it into a much more advanced system, as well as lowered the cost recently, with the grant from the National Science Foundation.

This technology of haptic devices is already being used in a different form, with cell phones that vibrate as well as in video games that already make users feel the physical sensations.

However, there is a huge difference in the technology created by Carnegie Mellon, as their system relies on a part that floats in a magnetic field rather than on mechanical links and cables.

We may not (yet) be able to taste food, but we can enjoy the feeling of being able touching it.

You worked on a project all night and have a power point presentation ready on your computer. You rush to work for that all important online presentation for a client and switch on your most trusted device, only to find it apologizing that it is not able to boot properly and asking if you want to boot in safe mode.

This is not an enjoyable situation to be in. In spite of being most needed and most used, computers have their own issues.

What would we not do to have a computer that does not need booting and starts immediately the minute it is switched on? It took scientists at Hewlett-Packard to eventually find a solution to this problem.

The solution is a simple basic electrical circuit that has the potential to possibly alleviate the need of booting a computer ever again.

The theory of electronics teaches that there are three basic elements of a passive circuit – resistors, capacitors and inductors. Inductors are found in all sorts of electronic circuits, particularly in combination with resistors and capacitors and commonly found in PCs. (more…)

How often do you find yourself at home, wishing you had emailed yourself those files from your work computer that you had hoped to finish that evening? Or perhaps you were working on something on your home computer and saved it to your flash drive in order to take it to work, but in your morning rush, left the flash drive plugged into the USB port? Wouldn’t it be nice to have remote access to your computer from a distance? With certain technology, that fantasy is becoming a reality for everyone.

Small Business
For some small businesses, remote control of computers is not a mere convenience, it is an absolute necessity. Sometimes businesses are so small there are only employees in one geographical area, and managers are several hours away. For these individuals, being able to access computers in other locations would finally enable them to be in two places at one time.

Other professionals work out of multiple locations, perhaps from the office a few days a week, and from home or a laptop on the road the others. Shuffling folders and files from one hard drive to another or relying on an unpredictable network can have disastrous consequences. (more…)

There is a new wave of technology heading toward school aged children in poor countries. Special computers designed to be used in rugged conditions and requiring very little power have been designed and are available for $188. XO, the company behind the computers, originally planned the machines to be only $100, but the final product ended up retailing at almost $200.

For two weeks in the middle of November, XO will be offering a “buy one, send one” special. The rugged little computers will be available for sale for $400. When you purchase one, you will get your own machine for any purpose you like and the profits will pay for another computer. That computer will be sent to a child in a rugged country.

The computers are small in design with green and white casing. They are laptops outfitted with Linux and built-in wireless networking. While there is hope the computers will one day use Windows, the unusual specifications of the machines make it hard to predict how well that operating system would work. (more…)

Thanks to Bluetooth technology, there are a slew of wireless gadgets on the market. Networks can go wireless and peripherals are available without wires. Despite this, under every computer desk is the same mess – the tangle of wires connecting everything together.

Now, however, researchers are experimenting with a way to remove all of the wires. Researchers at Georgia Tech have been playing with very high frequency radio signals and have discovered that it is very possible to submit large amounts of data over short distances with this technology.

Currently, the researchers have been able to send 15 gigabits per second over one meter, or slightly over a yard, 10 gigabits over 2 meters and 5 over 5 meters. Considering the size of most media files these days, large packets of data traveling between systems and components is not exceptional – it is the norm. This technology simply takes this high speed transfer an extra step – it’s more data. And it’s faster.

Those well versed in the industry feel strongly that this emerging technology will be revolutionizing at least part of the high-tech industry. Granted, there are always those who will feel uncomfortable with anything wireless except their television remote, but the majority of users will embrace the change. (more…)

Buying a new computer is great fun, and getting exactly what you need has never been simpler… or more complicated. In the past, computer came with a set of software and a few peripherals. Anything extra had to be installed separately. Now, you can build custom computers and you have almost endless choices already available on store shelves, including one of the toughest decisions - laptop or desktop?

Desktops
When computers managed to take up less than an entire room, they became desktops. A desktop computer comes with plenty of programs and a great deal of memory and processing speed. It usually can store a great deal more than a laptop simply due to its size and capabilities. A good desktop will store a complete library of music and media files as well as run large programs simultaneously and not slow down. Hard drives are big and so is the system as a whole. (more…)

Apple and Dell have been arch rivals for a good while. They compete on price and products and often take jabs at each other in the media. Dell has been quoted as saying Apple should close shop and return customers’ money during one of its rough spots in the past. The primary area of competition between the two companies is the field of education. Both companies aggressively target schools and students in an attempt to be the choice for back to school.

Students and schools making the decision between the two computers have a few areas to consider. The primary use of the computer is a major deciding factor as well as the software available. (more…)