Technology can be scary – even if it’s a bargain

Technology can be scary – even if it's a bargain !

TESCO have been selling off Canon IXUS 70's (with free Canon Selphy printer) for £99 but now I know why ! It must be to make shelf space for the IXUS 80 @ £199 ! However I find the IXUS face detection focus square that hovers over your subjects face while you move the camera fairly scary although its probably just the same technology used 100,000's of times everyday on the CCTV cameras around LGW & LHR for vehicle number plate detection. Old hat maybe or maybe it's just been a long time since I last bought a digital camera !

In Argos the Panasonic SDR-S7EB-K @ £220 features "3 second pre-record" that starts recording 3 seconds "before you press record" surely this has to be the worlds cheapest time machine ! And the Panasonic SDR-SW20EB-R UNDERWATER camcorder for £280 ! Isn't that how much they use to sell the waterproof cases for !

Finally TkMax are selling £100 PHILIPS Baby Alarms for £40 that phone your mobile when your baby crys ! I can see two flaws in that 1) what are you going to do when you are 50/500/5000 miles away ? 2) you have to install a phone line in every room your baby might be in ! Maybe TkMax are clearing their shelfs for a Wi-Fi enabled, multi-sensor version with dial IN as well as dial OUT capabilities !

Now that I would buy for £40 !

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The Zen of Free [Part 1.5]

[Sun Tech Day 2]

The Philosophy behind Open Source
Simon Phipps
Chief Open Source Officer

Topology of society has changed from Hub & Spoke to Mesh

Structure of society has changed and the Internet is turning society into a participation mesh

Consumers becoming participants (theyworkforyou.com)

Software Developement

• Closed Room
• Open Room
• Open source is software developement in a participation society – connected capitalism.

Virtuous cycle of open source

• Freedom to create derived works
• Anyone can check code out
• Few can check it back in

Software 3.0

• Software mashups
• Debian Ubuntu with OpenSolaris kernel – provides dtrace and ZFS to Ubuntu

Licences

• CDDL for OpenSolaris
• GPL for Java

Riches if

• Collaborate
• Compete
• Contribute

Open Source will be dominent by the end of the decade !

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The global blog village community and language

There is a problem has been bugging me for some time now and that is the problem of worldwide blogs and language. For example if my preferred language is French I'll probably blog in French but how can I approve feedback and comments from people who have a different preferred language ?

Is there an unwritten etiquette that dictates you only post comments in the same language as the original post ? Should the "approver" use bablefish to translate comments into their preferred language before approving them? and then only approve and repost the babelfish output ?

How does a "global" ISP or blog site like VOX make sure that all posts in all languages are not offensive or abusive without employing enough people to know every language in the world ? If anyone from VOX is reading please let me know your solutions !

NOTE : I'm sorry but I feel I can only approve comments in English until I have solved this dilemma !

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