blackpundit.com

Yahoo has announced that they will be testing a slicker email interface for their free email. This email interface will be similar to Microsoft Outlook and will give you more of a feeling like a desktop application.

The company plans to invite a “sizable” portion of its current e-mail accountholders to experiment with the retooled service, said Yahoo spokeswoman Karen Mahon, who declined to be more specific.

If the test goes well, all of Yahoo’s e-mail users — an audience that spans tens of millions — eventually will be converted to the new system.

The overhaul, described as the most extensive since Yahoo began offering free e-mail accounts eight years ago, represents the latest salvo in a technological tug-of-war for online traffic.

For the past two years, Yahoo and its main Internet rivals — Google Inc., AOL and Microsoft’s MSN.com — have been unveiling a series of upgrades aimed at attracting and retaining their Web audiences so they remain appealing outlets for advertisers.

More recently, the major e-mail providers have been introducing other bells and whistles to keep their users happy and coming back for more ads. Yahoo’s upgrade follows recent AOL improvements meant to make its e-mail service quicker and easier to use.

Yahoo’s e-mail service is currently leading the pack, with 63.6 million unique U.S. visitors during July, according to the most recent figures from comScore Media Metrix, a research firm. AOL ranked second with 48.7 million visitors followed by MSN’s Hotmail (44.4 million), Comcast Corp.’s Webmail (5.6 million) and Google’s Gmail (5.4 million).

With its changes, Yahoo’s e-mail will look more like a traditional inbox that operates through a software program installed on a computer hard drive instead of being hosted on the Internet. Yet Yahoo’s redesigned service still relies on a Web browser and won’t require its users to install anything on their computers.

Using “dynamic” html, Yahoo’s e-mail accounts will feature an inbox containing all e-mails on the top of the page with a separate pane for reading e-mail below it. The feature is meant to enable users to scroll through an e-mail folder without having to click back and forth between Web pages.

I have been using Yahoo email service for about the eight years it existed and I love it. I believe Yahoo is one of the best free internet services when it comes to email and instant messenger. Yahoo will be making a big jump if and when it pulls this off. I am pretty sure its competitors will soon follow.

As you all might know, I have been really busy with my school project and work. As I mention on my previous post, I end up writing my own semi gate level Verilog parser. This is a very basic parser and do not check much syntax, but if the code is error free, it works. My lab partner is writing the PODEM part of the project and I believe I have to write the top-level code starting next week. Next week is the last week that I will be working on my school project. So, hopefully I will be back posting soon.

Here is a zipped tar file for the parser with a makefile:
Verilog Parser

Sorry, but things are very slow here at BlackPundit.com. I have a major project at school due in about a week or two. With work and this project taking the majority of my free time, it is really hard for me to read, watch the news and update my site. Sorry for the inconvenience. This project that I am doing is for a VLSI course and the topic is to determine the worst-case crosstalk using ATPG. This will be an extensive C/C++ application. The test bench will be a Verilog design. I found a C Verilog parser and got it working with C, but since I need to use C++ data structures, it is really hard compiling some of the parser code with C++. If you know a little about programming, C++ is stricter on coding than C. Therefore, there are a lot of code in the parser that will compile with C and not with C++. My next step know is to try to make the hieratical Verilog test bench into a flatten test bench and write a little mini parser myself using the Standard Template Library (STL) that is provide with C++. Well, click here for the progress report if you are interested more on what this project is about.

For all of you tech geeks out there, look out in 2005 for cell phones that supports third-generation (3G or 1xEV-DO) standards. 3G is capable to supporting downloads up to 2.4 mbps and averaging 300-600 kbps. That means you can possible link your laptop to your cellphone and connect to speeds similar to cable or DSL.

If you are a geek or gadget fan, the next 12 months look like they are going to be a lot of fun.

The relentless pace of development in the hi-tech world and rampant competition in many of its sectors, particularly among mobile phone firms, all suggests that 2005 is going to be a very good year.

To begin with, 2005 will be the year that third-generation (3G) mobile phones become inescapable.

The main result of these launches will likely be a slew of good deals for consumers as operators try to poach new customers from rivals and convince existing users to trade up.

Already the extra capacity in 3G networks lets 3 offer good deals on voice calls at rates that will probably have to be matched by the other operators.

But the shift in technology and low cost of voice calls means that operators lose a significant chunk of their revenue.

Oakley sunglasses

Oakley sunglasses with integrated headphones and music player. The suggested retail price for the new brand of eyewear is between $395, for a pair with 128 megabytes of memory, and $495, for the 256 megabyte version that also has polarized lenses. Oakley mounted the digital player’s hardware on the frame’s temples, including a sliding and pivoting feature to help line up the speakers to the wearer’s ears. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Microsoft is now entering the blog world with its free ad-supported Web-log publishing service.

Microsoft Corp. made a belated entrance into the “blogosphere” Thursday, unveiling a free Web-log publishing service one day after Merriam-Webster Inc. proclaimed “blog” the word of the year.

MSN Spaces works likes this: Anyone can set up a free, ad-supported Web journal by registering or signing in under an existing Hotmail or MSN Messenger user name. He or she then names the site, selects from various layouts and page designs, and decides what to include on the new home page. That can include the usual journal or blog entries but also photos (which can be viewed as slide shows), lists of favorite songs, Web sites or anything else. Users can restrict access to friends or make their sites viewable to anyone.

“Blogging is growing, but it is still a pretty niche thing,”

The MSN censor appears uneven in our tests; it allowed plenty of “god damn” headlines, but blocked a nod to an old Elton John song, “The bitch is back.” Microsoft said it prohibits profanity in rules of conduct people must consent to when signing up for MSN Spaces. The company also said it is testing a mechanism to screen images.

There will be another DVD format coming soon. This new format will be High Definition (HD), which is currently being battled as a standard by Toshiba Corp (high-definition DVD format), and Sony (Blu-ray disc). Yes, it is a separate format than the current DVD’s and yes you will have to purchase a new DVD player to support this new HD format. But the good thing is, the new DVD players will be backward compatible to play your existing DVDs. The bad thing is, different movie productions will support the two different formats. Ultimately, one of the formats will disappear. Hopefully, in late 2005 when the two formats are expected to come out, some tech company will give heads up on which format they believe will survive the HD DVD battle. The only thing I don’t know is if the new HD DVD format will play on the existing DVD players.

What is RSS feeds?

RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. It is used for web sites to summarize their contents such as news articles to make it available in a simpler format. With one glance, you can quickly see the latest headlines from articles or post from your favorite news or blog sites. You can go directly to the articles that interest you, which then saves you time. Many different websites such as Yahoo News (RSS), BBC News (RSS) and many different blog sites such as BlackPundit (RSS) and HispanicPundit (RSS) have their own RSS feeds available. To retrieve RSS feeds from different sites, just look for the RSS or XML on that site. Click on it and it will give you the link to the RSS.

Available version for RSS includes 0.9, 1.0, and 2.0.

How to use RSS?

Using RSS is very similar, if not identical, as using bookmarks on your web browser. The purpose of using RRS feeds with your bookmarks is to simplify and manage news and article headlines on different news and blog sites.

Here are a couple of examples on how a bookmark would look.

As you can see, the bookmarks for Yahoo News and Hispanic Pundit (to the left of the images) exactly match the headlines on HispanicPundit.com and Yahoo News site. As you can see, you do not have to visit the actual website to see the headlines. To visit the actual headline on the website, just click on the headline in the bookmark. Also, the RSS on different sites are updated as the sites are, therefore when the website is updated, so are your bookmarks.

How to install the RSS to your bookmark?

Many different Internet browsers maybe different and some browser may not support RSS. I use the new FireFox 1.0 Internet browser and it supports RSS. Here is how you would use it for FireFox:

Add Live Bookmarks manually
Some sites don’t tell Firefox that they support Live Bookmarks, even though they actually do. If you know the URL of a site’s RSS feed (url ends with .rdf or .xml), you can manually create a Live Bookmark for the site. Go to the Bookmarks menu and select ‘Manage Bookmarks’. Under the ‘File Menu’, select ‘New Live Bookmark’. Create a name for the Live Bookmark and add the URL. New articles from that site will appear as Live Bookmarks in Firefox.

For other Internet browsers, use the help feature on how to use RSS.

Well, I hope I made this simple enough to understand what is RSS feeds and how to use it. I find it very useful and convenient because you do not have to go to an actual website to see the headlines of different news and blog sites. And if you have a blog site, make sure your RSS feed is available, because this standard is taking off, especially for blog sites… Oh, and many blog sites have their comments available in RSS feeds too.

Firefox 1.0 is officially released as of today. I have been using the pre-release version for a couple of days now, and I love the tabbing system. I do not have to have a lot of IE windows all up at once now. Their find function is pretty cool too. When you try to search for a key work, a box appears at the lower left side of the window, and as you type, FireFox immediately start searching for the letters you type in. Try out FireFox 1.0 and see how you like it.

IBM $100 million supercomputer claims a record speed of 70.72 trillion calculations per second. Previously, Japan’s supercomputer had the record with its 35.86 trillion calculations per second.

Many companies are getting blamed for computers running slow, slow internet speeds and operating systems crashing. The problem is not the company’s product, but spyware. Spyware are programs that are loaded on computers without the owner’s knowledge. Also, spyware enables popup ads and redirect people to unfamiliar search engines. If your computer runs slower than normal and your internet is acting weird or funny, you might have tons of spyware running in the background of your computer. There are many free spyware removers out on the web. The best thing to do is to download these spyware removers and run them periodically (at least once a week). I use adware6.0, which you can probably find on http://download.com. I fixed a friends computer with adware6.0, which had about 600 spyware programs running in the background. After all the spyware programs were removed, the computer worked gracefully.

A California biotech company is introducing genetically modified cats in 2007. These cats are genetically modified to reduce/eliminate allergies from cats. Cats produces a potent protein secreted by the cat’s skin. This biotech company uses a method called gene silencing to suppress this protein. Now, people who love cats can now enjoy them without sneezing or watery eyes. This biotech company is now accepting a $250 deposit for these $3,500 genetically modified cats.

Besides from spam, instant message (IM) users are now dealing with bulk messages called “spim”. Currently, AOL is filing a lawsuit against numerous unnamed defendants. Also, EarthLink, Yahoo and Microsoft have file numbers of lawsuits against spam. Hopefully, we will no longer need bulk folders for spam in our email accounts.

The rocket plane, funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, Space Ship One took off on today towards the edge of the earth for the Ansari X Prize which is worth $10 million.

If it succeeds, the backers will claim the Ansari X Prize (search), intended to spur private enterprise to develop rockets that could carry tourists into space. The $10 million award goes to the first privately built, manned rocket ship to fly in space twice in a span of two weeks.

A crowd of thousands of space enthusiasts and a throng of news media gathered at Mojave Airport in the early morning darkness to watch the flight. Last week, SpaceShipOne rolled dozens of times as it hurtled toward space at three times the speed of sound.

Nano-Technology is being used today and have promises for tomorrow. Now, it is being used in flash memories, computer chips. In the future, Nano-Technology will enhance the performance of materials, electronics, paints, batteries, sensors, fuel cells, solar cells, computers and displays systems.

As we can see today, there are hundreds of giga-byte storage devices. With Nano-Technology will take storage devices in quantities of tera-bytes stored on an area the size of a postage stamp. This will be good for Apple’s best selling iPod. Imagine an iPod the size of a face on a watch that can store 10 hours of high quality uncompressed video. You can only image how many mp3 songs you can put on it.

Although Nano-Technology has its strong benefits, there are fears. The Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering reports on whether to put limits on Nano-Technology. The fear goes into molecular sized self-replicating robots or machines. The book “Prey” by Michael Criton have good examples about self-replicating robots with artificial intelligence and how it can be harmful. Also, there are concerns about breathing nano particles and them interring the bloodstream. This is not known if is a health hazard.

Nano-materials have unusual electrical and optical properties. Military departments can benefit from this by having materials or fabrics change their color electronically. Also, the medical industry can benefit from this by using forms of flexible films containing miniaturized electrodes, which are expected to improve the performance of retinal, cochlear, and neural implants.

GE is now heavily looking into nano-materials like ceramics. GE studies show that nano-ceramics can promise strong and lighter materials. This means that by using nano-ceramic coating on aircrafts, it can make the aircraft 10% more efficient. Which then leads to less energy used and producing fewer emissions.

Intel just announced successfully creating a 70 megabit memory chip using 35nanometer technology. Intel is far in the future with this accomplishment. Currently, many companies are still having leakage current and power issues with 90nanomemter technology, which is being used in today’s electronics. Also, many companies are just starting to look into 65nanometer technology, while Intel has a functional 35nanometer chip. What can you say but, WOW!

The Santa Clara, California-based company said Monday it’s created a fully functional 70 megabit memory chip with transistor switches measuring just 35 nanometers — about 30 percent smaller than those found on today’s state-of-the-art chips.

Intel said products built with its 65-nanometer process technology — a label that describes the average size of the minuscule chip features — are on track for delivery in 2005.

It is very important for electronic devices like cell phones, PDAs, or any portable device that are operated by batteries that transistor become smaller and smaller. These nanometer technologies enable these devices to become smaller and more powerful.

The Pacific island nation is planning to supply the island of Samoa with full Internet access to help promote business and the economy. Currently, about 30% of the population has access to a basic phone and less the 2% uses the Internet.

Samoa is at the the heart of tropical Polynesia. It has a population of 180,000, but only 30% presently have access to a basic telephone.
Less than 2% ever use the Internet. But the government plans a major drive to promote online access for all.

With Samoa having access to the internet, they will be able to market their goods like woven bags online.

She foresees the day when a computer-literate population sells Samoan goods such as woven bags and Polynesian prints over the internet, promoting economic growth.

Some Samoans fear that the internet will impact their culture by bringing western values and other fears about child pornography.

In this rush to embrace new technology, there are some warning voices.

“One of the things that I worry about is how this exposure is going to impact on the culture,” says Ioanna Chan-Mow, Dean of the Faculty of Science and the National University of Samoa.

“We’re exposing ourselves to a whole lot of philosophies and ways of life, bringing in a lot of western values.”

Samoan culture is centred around the traditional family unit, each headed by a Matai or Chief. Attendance at Christian church services is high.

Of particular concern to many people is internet pornography.

At one of the few private schools which provided pupils with internet access, the PCs had to be moved after it was discovered children had been accessing inappropriate websites.

The prime minister believes the benefits of the internet will far outweigh any disadvantages.

“The internet is OK so long as we impose the necessary controls to cut out pornography which would be damaging for our people,” he says.

Scientist says that there were more water on mars than expected.

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — The hills of Mars yielded more tantalizing clues about how water shaped the Red Planet in tests by NASA’s robotic geologist, Spirit, while its twin, Opportunity, observed the deep crater it climbed into two months ago, scientists said on Wednesday.

“This is different from the rocks out on the plain, where we saw coatings and veins apparently due to effects of a small amount of water. Here we have a more thorough, deeper alteration, suggesting much more water.”

Although we spend billions of tax dollars (sorry, $820 million combined cost) on a project like Opportunity and Spirit, I think it is worthwhile to explore outside of our own planet. Maybe we can then find answers to unsolved questions or maybe we find more technical advances.