Author: Tech News

Robots are So Close Now

Posted onAuthorTech News

There is a crew in Asia (unsure where can’t see much face) that is steadily working on a robot with some human looking features and motions. The robot smiles, blinks nods and looks around (if those are cameras in the eye sockets). Many of the normal human actions of a smile and talking, happen with this robot. I haven’t seen the hands or arms of the robot move yet

The mouth is still very “puppety” when the robot talks.
I understand why they used female for the texture. couple simple reasons. 1 they are guys and i am sure it would have been creepy trying to build a pleasant non offensive looking male. 2 all killer robots are male.
I hope the end result in this robot venture is to help those who are unable to help themselves.

or if you want to be more gross about robots

And a bit more robot gross. Robotic arm being used by a living monkey.

Another robotic hand, This one does not work on the mind control, this robotic hand works on muscle movement.

both arms are robotic

I am surprised there is not a larger group of tech people working on these robots or competitive robots. Not so much like battle bots or robot wars. More like if there is competition, you have room for greater ideas and higher goals for achievement. Take a chance on your robot as apposed to just make it happen. If tech was done that way, those cyborg arms would be running on diesel fuel and there would be 20 foot hoses connected to the back of them.

Comments are open below.

Wikipedia is Looking for Help

Posted onAuthorTech News

The people at Wikipedia are apparently in a crunch and in need of donations to help further enhance their project and to keep the site running.

Make donations To Wikipedia.
so if you are in a giving mood sand feel like being helpful click the link and make a donation.
if you are uncomfortable with clicking the link then just type the website’s address in, you will see the banner they put on the top of every single WIki on the site.

Patch Tuesday 10 5 10

Posted onAuthorTech News

Thanks for the .net patch xs 2. but you can keep the silverlight.
Why would they even continue to patch and update that thing? who uses it? is it to stop flash? Stop java?
Useless I tell you.. Useless
Well enjoy your patches, while I patch my peice of junk xp machine at work (actually good computer but our “IT guy” is afraid to evolve) and reduce productivity.

Old Dell Hd In a brand New HP

Thanks for the update. No idea what I will be doing with it. Didn’t really seem like any Security fixes.

Welcome to Zero day 2.0

Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 on Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008 x86 (KB2416447)
Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 and 3.5 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP x86 (KB2418241)
Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 x86 (KB2416473)

Server Outages sept16-2010

Posted onAuthorTech News

I have been watching servers go down in waves since about 8 am central time. No info yet as to what may be the cause.
IMHO one hub/ major server is down and we are now being temporarily routed through another, and well now we are bottle necking.
but who can tell?
We shall see.

I do know that Internet is not down, just some locations can not be reached.
alexa servers just went down, twitter went down. but twitter could have been nailed by an influx of people saying “WTF?”.
Just saw facebook stumbled also.
Affiliate advertising company website Adbrite.com was down.
We at truxtertech.com were down for about 15 minutes here.

***added***
Well, so far there is no message saying what happened. Anyone know? I know this information will not help anything, other than make me stop asking “WTF”.

Halo Reach Out Now

Posted onAuthorTech News

Halo Reach looks beautiful.
Game play is epic Halo.
Few videos out already and a few people have actually stopped playing long enough to post. Will get back to you when I am done getting my adrenaline fix.
Halo Reach is just the way that Halo is supposed to be.
Sorry short post, but how long can you stop playing the game to write this ?
I mean there was no tragic dramatic change as it was hyped but it is still halo so it is a great game. This is the FPS game.
Sad thing is you know it will get FPS game of the year and we are in the 4th quarter of the year when it is released. There have been some great video games released already, so it kinda will be unfair. So far no bugs :-) keep gaming .

Mashable Poll Does Not add Up

Posted onAuthorTech News

On the Mashable website reading the poll results for Mashable’s poll on New digg Verses old digg.

A few things just don’t add up,

Mashable Poll

Stare closely When you see it. Keep looking there is more.

They say that old Digg won, but it shows old Digg got only 4 votes but is 78% of the poll.
IMHO, They don’t like Digg’s ability to steal traffic, or the traffic Digg stole a while back..

Why do I say this?
because if you tilt your head to the right.

The poll looks like they are flipping an FU bird.

Paypal Android Bump App

Posted onAuthorTech News

Just by being at the correct menu and fulfilling the proper credentials, you can now bump your android phone to another android phone and make a payment of a specified amount.
Android application that allows paypal payment via a bump? lol now the pick pockets just have to bump into your phone? If you are a moron walking around looking for some who is ready to receive while you have a specified drop amount in hand.
What will this do for smuggling or laundering. Probably not much. Except when you see the Knux bump, It could in fact be an exchange of money. An accidental hand bump in a a crowded bus, airport, mall or what ever. You can then pretend to be someone that witnessed a spy transaction. Or you could be someone that really did witness one and just not wake up in the morning.
Well you can get your android bump ap and see who all out there is willing to test it out with you.
Go to Paypal’s site when you get the free time or look in the android market for it.

paypal android

Gmail Phone

Posted onAuthorTech News

Well I logged in today to my gmail account while on my Xubuntu partition and saw something new (to me).

It seems that Google has released  and internet based phone that we all can use locally for free.

There is a page that describes the rates. but there was also a pop up ( I did not screenshot) that says calls within the country I am in are free, but calls outside of the country have extremely low rates.

Here is a list of the rates for the google phone and the page the rates are listed on.

Now you can make phone calls from Gmail at extremely low rates — so you can share your two cents with France
(or Argentina, or Iceland, or Guam…) for $0.02. Check out some sample per-minute rates below or see the complete list.

Google Leading internet telephony provider
United States free 2.1 ¢/min + connection fee
Canada free 2.1 ¢/min + connection fee
India 6 ¢/min 9.2 ¢/min + connection fee
UK landline 2 ¢/min 2.1 ¢/min + connection fee
UK mobile 18 ¢/min 25.3 ¢/min + connection fee
Mexico landline 10 ¢/min 9.9 ¢/min + connection fee
Mexico mobile 19 ¢/min 33.6 ¢/min + connection fee
France landline 2 ¢/min 2.1 ¢/min + connection fee
France mobile 15 ¢/min 20.3 ¢/min + connection fee

Wooo hoo… It’s like the G1.1 for all of us lol… I wonder if they will slip in some ads in there.

Google Phone picture

The reason I mentioned Xubuntu is that I had just installed the latest version and then tested the  Ethernet driver adapter support by heading straight to gmail and I got the notice. Since I was on Linux, and all of the android phones are owned by Google, and well since Android is based on Linux , My assumption was that Google gave all of the Linux users a cool little secret treat.

But then I booted to my winseven partition and :-(

There it is, the google phone for gmail.

I remember when msn and yahoo did this years ago. As soon as they stopped, Skype took it over.

**updated**

My question is, if you have the official Gmail ap on your droid. Does this mean you can now make calls and bypass your phone billing service since you are paying for unlimited internet ?

Apple Makes 99 Cent Shows Store

Posted onAuthorTech News

Cnet reports that Itunes has a new store for tv shows. 99 cent shows on itunes.

Everyone already knows what will be on that section of their site. The office,Family guy, Southpark and a few other internet trends. Lots of Chick flick tv shows. Resolution will be above par. 48 hours is the window of time we have to watch the videos and then bam it’s gone.

Well cool, that actually brings media to the public the way we have kinda always wanted. Really we wanted the owners of tv stations to stream for free. Well we could handle adverts and stuff. We kind of expect it. So the rental of a tv show we could probably watch on time, is kind of lame. Does give us the chance to watch the movies we would have missed because a late day at work or what ever catastrophe we would encounter that would prevent the enjoyment of our favorite show. DVR.

It’s a good idea for some.

For me it’s not what I am looking for. I refuse to put quicktime,itunes or any other media from apple on my computer. They just don’t have enough  bugs worked out to keep me interested.

Apple to Brick Jailbroke Iphones

Posted onAuthorTech News

From Mashable, It seems that Apple is claiming their intentions for your use of their product. (Apple is bricking the hacked iphones. Again.)

On one end I understand why they don’t want you to modify or enhance their product. Their whole operating system is that way.

On the other end I understand why people get upset that they paid for something and should be able to use it how they want to.

That’s just apple. They create it, they tell you how to use it. Many accept that as a logical request. Others find that to be zombie like. I find it crippling by not allowing more people to create and innovate to evolve more in the directions that other people than Mac employees may think is next or most wanted.

But again they put a copyright on their product with a specific end user license agreement. When you buy their product you are at some time  given the EULA that you have to agree to before you can actually use the product. Most people do not read them. They just click ok and hurry into their new goodies.

So Enjoy your Iphone for what it is. :-)