Recent Posts

2201

Living Room / Light-powered bionic eye invented to help restore sight

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 15, 2012, 06:05 PM »

A retinal implant - or bionic eye - which is powered by light has been invented by scientists at Stanford University in California.

Implants currently used in patients need to be powered by a battery.

The new device, described in the journal Nature Photonics, uses a special pair of glasses to beam near infrared light into the eye.

This powers the implant and sends the information which could help a patient see.

Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinal pigmentosa result in the death of cells which can detect light in the eye.

Eventually this leads to blindness.
Wiring eliminated

Retinal implants stimulate the nerves in the back of the eye, which has helped some patients to see.

Early results of a trial in the UK mean two men have gone from being totally blind to being able to perceive light and even some shapes.

However, as well as a fitting a chip behind the retina, a battery needs to be fitted behind the ear and a cable needs to join the two together.


Prof Robert MacLaren from Oxford Eye Hospital explains how a bionic eye implant works

The Stanford researchers say their method could be a step forward by "eliminating the need for complex electronics and wiring".

Read More: http://www.bbc.co.uk...news/health-18061174

2202

Living Room / Apple drops '4G' from iPad adverts

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 15, 2012, 06:04 PM »

Apple has stopped using the phrase 4G in adverts for its latest iPad.

The description proved controversial because 4G is not widely available in the UK and the iPad will not work with it when it is.

The UK's advertising watchdog and others around the world investigated Apple over use of the 4G phrase.

Apple said the confusion arose because of the ways operators refer to different high-speed mobile technologies.
Word jumble

When the newest version of the iPad was launched in March, adverts for the device claimed it would work with 4G, meaning fourth generation, mobile technology. The 4G in question was a technology known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) that was starting to appear in the US.

However, when LTE arrives in Britain, the rest of Europe and many other nations, it will use different frequencies from those in the US, meaning the iPad will not be able to use 4G everywhere.

Read More: http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-18059732

2203

Living Room / Nokia accuses Apple of Siri bias over smartphone answer

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 15, 2012, 06:02 PM »

The debate over "what is the best smartphone ever?" took an unexpected twist after Apple's voice-activated assistant Siri appeared to favour the iPhone's rival.

Over the weekend, users of Siri were told the answer was Nokia's Lumia 900.

But Siri now responds to the same question with a jovial: "Wait... there are other phones?"

Nokia has accused Apple of "overriding the software" after the quirk was noticed.

Apple would not confirm that a change had been made.

The Siri software, which is featured on Apple's iPhone 4S, uses the computational search engine Wolfram Alpha to serve answers to some questions.
'Flattered'

For a question such as "what is the best smartphone ever?", Wolfram Alpha would pool available reviews and comment in order to come up with what it feels is the right result.


Read More: http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-18071342

2204

Living Room / GM to yank $10M in Facebook ads, saying they don't work

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 15, 2012, 06:00 PM »

The automaker began re-evaluating its Facebook strategy earlier this year. According to the Wall Street Journal, General Motors determined that while free marketing works on the site, paid ads don't.

The automaker began re-evaluating its Facebook strategy earlier this year. According to the Wall Street Journal, General Motors determined that while free marketing works on the site, paid ads don't.

Read More: http://news.cnet.com...34835-93/gm-to-yank-$10m-in-facebook-ads-saying-they-dont-work/

2205

Living Room / Dell apologizes for hiring sexist summit moderator

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 15, 2012, 05:59 PM »

Dell "sincerely apologizes" for offensive jokes by a moderator at its Copenhagen, Denmark, partner summit in April -- a few weeks later, and only on its Google+ page. Better than nothing, we suppose.

Dell's Google+ apology...find it here, and nowhere else!

Last week, I wrote about a Dell summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the moderator of the event, Mads Christensen, "entertained" the crowd of IT professionals with a barrage of sexist jokes, and exhorted them to go home and tell their wives to "shut up, bitch."

 This week, Dell posted an apology on its Google+ page, saying the company would be "more careful selecting speakers at Dell events."
 

Dell's Google+ apology...find it here, and nowhere else!

 The apology comes weeks after the actual event, unfortunately, after my column and tech blogger Christiane Vejlo's English-language post made it onto Reddit this past weekend. (Vejlo, the only journalist invited to the event, live-tweeted Christensen's comments as they happened, plus posted a follow-up in Danish and English.)

Read More: http://news.cnet.com...st-summit-moderator/

2206

Living Room / AMD launches Trinity chipset to tackle Intel

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 15, 2012, 05:55 PM »

AMD, the processor manufacturer, has announced the new chipset that it hopes will rival Intel's Ivy Bridge processors.

The HP Envy Sleekbook will be powered by AMD's Trinity processor.

The new A-series chipsets, codenamed Trinity, will be used in thin and light laptops that will compete with Intel-backed ultrabooks, AMD says.

The company says Trinity-powered ultrathin laptops will be significantly cheaper than ultrabooks. The first to go on sale, in June, will be a 'Sleekbook' from Hewlett Packard.

Trinity will allow improved battery life for laptops because it can be set to draw around half the minimum power requirement of AMD's previous chipset, Llano.

Chris Cloran, corporate vice president of AMD, said: “Our 2nd-Generation AMD A-Series APU is a major step forward in every performance and power dimension, allowing users to enjoy a stunning experience without having to give up the things that matter to them most."

Intel will release its new Ivy Bridge chipset for ultrabooks next month. The current generation of ultrabooks, which began to go on sale at the end of last year, run on Sandy Bridge processors.

AMD's Trinity chipset will also be available for standard laptops and desktops. AMD claims that Trinity desktops have a 20-50 per cent better graphics performance for gamers than Intel's comparable Ivy Bridge processor.

Intel's Ivy Bridge processors measure just 22 nanometres across, which gives the potential for faster operations using less power. AMD's Trinity chipset, however, is still manufactured using the 32 nanometre process.

AMD says consumers care about performance and the overall experience, rather than the nanometre size of the processor.

Both Intel and AMD face growing competition from Arm, the Cambridge-based company that has so far dominated the mobile processor market.

Sourced From: http://www.telegraph...to-tackle-Intel.html

2207

Living Room / Re: Google.com is suddenly redirecting me to Google.co.uk ?!

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 11, 2012, 05:40 PM »

Odd - interesting

I've always been able to get to both sites depending upon which TLD I use... now it seems keen that I use the UK site.

Oh well 

-Ampa (May 11, 2012, 05:36 PM)

I have always been directed to the .co.uk :/

2208

Living Room / Re: Google.com is suddenly redirecting me to Google.co.uk ?!

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 11, 2012, 05:33 PM »

As of around 9pm GMT Google.com is redirecting me to Google.co.uk

All browsers, all computers in the house.

This has buggered up my address bar search in Opera.

Has this happened to everyone in the UK?
Just those on TalkTalk?
Or just me!

-Ampa (May 11, 2012, 05:07 PM)

Suddenly? - It's been doing that for years...

2209

Living Room / Re: Cool YouTube feature I just found randomly

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 11, 2012, 02:43 PM »

It's a nice mix, isnt it


If a video is shown here it will show a link below the video - as seen on donationcoder - the link goes to the page you're showing. I think if the video is shown elswhere in the meantime, the dc link is replaced by a new one.

-tomos (May 11, 2012, 02:14 PM)

Yeah, thats how I found out about it...I saw the "As featured on DonationCoder Forum" on one of my videos and was like "ehhhhhh"

2210

Living Room / Re: Cool YouTube feature I just found randomly

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 11, 2012, 09:49 AM »

Seems so, it gathers all embedded youtube videos from sites, and sticks them into one area on Youtube 

2211

Living Room / Cool YouTube feature I just found randomly

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 11, 2012, 08:05 AM »

Checkout this link:

http://www.youtube.c...blogs/id/KfDhZabr1AU

2212

Living Room / Re: Favorite Websites...What are yours?

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 10, 2012, 08:57 PM »

For tech/geek news:
reddit for the actual news
Slashdot for the comments

-Mark0 (May 10, 2012, 08:38 PM)

Your first link is broken

2213

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: Lock Folder

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 10, 2012, 04:02 PM »

Awesome! 

2214

Tours and Tutorials / Important: Screenscast Tours of DonationCoder are temporarily offline

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 10, 2012, 12:19 PM »

Some of these tours are located on a domain which is no longer available.  If you see the link "http://josh.dcmembers.com/......." you will not be able to connect.

This error has just come to light and will be fixed ASAP.

If you are looking for something specific and cannot find it, please either use the Search function, or come join us on our Live Chat room in order to obtain help.

Thanks!

2215

General Software Discussion / Re: tabbed Better Explorer for W7

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 09, 2012, 05:21 PM »

I remember reading that 64 bit support would take the double number of DLLs. Better Explorer does work on 64 bit versions, but slower. And if it doesn't work, they have a reg file to make it do so. But in general I know nothing about Better Explorer because I stopped caring when I upgraded to 64 bit W7.

-Curt (May 09, 2012, 05:13 PM)

To be fair, I have no intention of using this, as I am not a fan of this Ribbon UI crap, just struck me as curious why they didn't add 64 support (Seeing as most Win7 users will be on 64bit)

2216

General Software Discussion / Re: tabbed Better Explorer for W7

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 09, 2012, 04:56 PM »

I wonder why theres no x64 support 

2217

Living Room / Re: Favorite Websites...What are yours?

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 09, 2012, 04:40 PM »

Books

FantastiFiction  http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/

"Bibliographies for over 30,000 authors: Information on over 350,000 books."  Invaluable for tracking your favourite authors' books, checking on series, etc.

-rjbull (May 09, 2012, 04:05 PM)

Figured I would add it to this list and grow it from here - What rating out of 5 would you give it?

2218

Living Room / Keep Calm

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 09, 2012, 03:27 PM »

2219

Living Room / Anybody on the UK got Virgin Media TV & This Problem?

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 09, 2012, 01:58 PM »

I have noticed over the past week or so, TV shows will randomly skip to the end for no good reason (an obvious mistake) - It has been doing it more and more, and it has also been noticed on Sky TV.  It is literally like we go through some sort of time jump and skip about 90-300 seconds of time.

Anyone else noticed this?

2220

Living Room / Favorite Websites...What are yours?

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 09, 2012, 11:50 AM »

I am currently compiling a list of some great websites to visit for different topics and am wondering what everybody here has to say on the subject.

If you want to suggest one please do it in the following order so it makes it easier for me to add them to the list.

Category | Name/Link | Description

A example of how the list will look:

Category	Name/Link	Description	Rating
Software	DonationCoder	DonationCoder.com is a site for people who love computer software, and like the idea of supporting each other's work through donations. It's funded entirely by individuals who join the site.
	Download.com	Huge Software Repository Website
Books	FantasticFiction	"Bibliographies for over 30,000 authors: Information on over 350,000 books."   Invaluable for tracking your favourite authors' books, checking on series, etc.

Cheers!

2221

Living Room / Re: Show us a photo of your mutt or other creatures..

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 08, 2012, 04:02 PM »

Just been annoying my dogs with a Laser Pen xD - Sorry for the bad quality, only had my crappy phone on me

2222

Living Room / Re: Software Developers: Solve a puzzle, get an Interview (Facebook)

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 08, 2012, 01:31 PM »

"In one of these languages". Heh pity they specified that, it would be funny if someone wrote a correct answer in Lolcat.

Humor Note for the day: It would be hysterical if some eccentric business owner ran an enterprise system in Lolcat and made it sound like an ordinary programming job. The first 30 seconds when the new hire looks at 40,000 lines of Lolcat code doing something cutting edge would just make him DoubleFacepalm.

-TaoPhoenix (May 08, 2012, 01:24 PM)

30 seconds...to read 40,000 lines of code?

2223

Living Room / Software Developers: Solve a puzzle, get an Interview (Facebook)

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 08, 2012, 01:21 PM »

2224

Find And Run Robot / Re: Polish letter "ó"

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 08, 2012, 10:40 AM »

I do not really fit me because I often use the "TypingAid" program that inserts text strings containing the letter "ó". Not always so I use the keyboard to insert the letter "ó". When I insert a string with the letter "ó" start options window. I would like to disable shortcut "alt + o" in the FARR

Anyway, as I see the "left ctrl + left alt + o" have the same effect. Open options window.

-Judykator (May 08, 2012, 10:16 AM)

Ah OK, I didn't know, I am not a FARR user - Just thought I would throw a random 'Workaround' into the mix 

2225

Find And Run Robot / Re: Polish letter "ó"

« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on May 08, 2012, 10:07 AM »

Example: