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16
General / "Eyez 720p video streaming / recording glasses hands-on (video)"
« on: December 07, 2011, 10:54:51 PM »
http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/07/eyez-720p-video-streaming-recording-glasses-hands-on-video/
"Sure, you may already lead an exciting life, but wouldn't it be great if you could broadcast those daily escapades -- you know, to all of your internet friends? ZionEyez hopes to deliver a method for sharing your point of view -- quite literally -- in realtime, across the web. The company's first product, a set of 720p embedded-camera eyeglasses called Eyez, houses a tiny camera to the left of the standard-size eyeglass lens, with a processor, Bluetooth and WiFi module embedded in the adjacent ear piece. We first read about the inconspicuous specs when the company launched a Kickstarter page, netting nearly $350,000 in pledges from curious backers, but just had an opportunity to spend a few hours with the device, recording the journey to a meeting in New York City. Jump past the break for a closer look, and our sample footage.
The issue of privacy is first to come to mind -- there's really no way to tell that the glasses contain a tiny camcorder (with mono audio capture) without an up-close inspection. It's not the first "spy cam" to come to market, however, though it may be the first with the possibility of becoming mainstream. Future Eyez owners will be responsible for disclosing when they hit record, so be sure to review (and observe) the laws for your locale.
The prototype we used was limited to local storage -- a separate, bulkier proto contained the radios necessary for wireless streaming, but wasn't available today. The 720p video quality wasn't spectacular, with horizontal bands of noise in shadow areas, but we were reminded many times that this is a very early prototype. We're told that the final version will be much sleeker (perhaps no larger than a pair of plastic Ray Bans), with much more polished video. Audio was a bit tinny as well, but we had no problem understanding the speaker as long as we weren't recording in a noisy, cavernous room. The Eyez weren't fully charged before our shoot, but we're told to expect between two and three hours of juice from the 350mAh battery, which you can charge using the proprietary USB cable.
ZionEyez reps weren't able to confirm a release date, but they did confirm a $199 price tag and showed us a mock-up of the final version, which looked fantastic. Since the Eyez themselves will be quite visible, exterior appearance is certainly not to be overlooked, but video quality is equally important. Check out the footage below for a very early look, keeping in mind that there's still plenty of time to work out the kinks before these start popping up on a temple near you."
"Sure, you may already lead an exciting life, but wouldn't it be great if you could broadcast those daily escapades -- you know, to all of your internet friends? ZionEyez hopes to deliver a method for sharing your point of view -- quite literally -- in realtime, across the web. The company's first product, a set of 720p embedded-camera eyeglasses called Eyez, houses a tiny camera to the left of the standard-size eyeglass lens, with a processor, Bluetooth and WiFi module embedded in the adjacent ear piece. We first read about the inconspicuous specs when the company launched a Kickstarter page, netting nearly $350,000 in pledges from curious backers, but just had an opportunity to spend a few hours with the device, recording the journey to a meeting in New York City. Jump past the break for a closer look, and our sample footage.
The issue of privacy is first to come to mind -- there's really no way to tell that the glasses contain a tiny camcorder (with mono audio capture) without an up-close inspection. It's not the first "spy cam" to come to market, however, though it may be the first with the possibility of becoming mainstream. Future Eyez owners will be responsible for disclosing when they hit record, so be sure to review (and observe) the laws for your locale.
The prototype we used was limited to local storage -- a separate, bulkier proto contained the radios necessary for wireless streaming, but wasn't available today. The 720p video quality wasn't spectacular, with horizontal bands of noise in shadow areas, but we were reminded many times that this is a very early prototype. We're told that the final version will be much sleeker (perhaps no larger than a pair of plastic Ray Bans), with much more polished video. Audio was a bit tinny as well, but we had no problem understanding the speaker as long as we weren't recording in a noisy, cavernous room. The Eyez weren't fully charged before our shoot, but we're told to expect between two and three hours of juice from the 350mAh battery, which you can charge using the proprietary USB cable.
ZionEyez reps weren't able to confirm a release date, but they did confirm a $199 price tag and showed us a mock-up of the final version, which looked fantastic. Since the Eyez themselves will be quite visible, exterior appearance is certainly not to be overlooked, but video quality is equally important. Check out the footage below for a very early look, keeping in mind that there's still plenty of time to work out the kinks before these start popping up on a temple near you."
17
General / "Fire dept. watches home burn because family didn’t pay fee"
« on: December 07, 2011, 04:46:28 PM »
I feel like I remember people bringing up this possibility in a discussion about a free market society.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/07/fire-dept-watches-home-burn-because-family-didnt/
Firefighters in one Tenn. county watched this week as a family’s home burned to the ground, refusing to take action to save the structure because the residents had not paid their yearly $75 fee.
Homeowner Vicky Bell told a reporter with NBC affiliate station Local 6 WPSD that she immediately called 9-1-1 when the fire began, and emergency crews rushed to the scene.
Unfortunately for Bell, once firefighters arrived they realized that the family had not contributed to the department this year, so they stood down — exactly as instructed to by the City of South Fulton’s “pay for spray” policy.
Due to budget cuts, residents of rural areas outside the city limits have to pay the city for fire protection, or face potential disaster.
Shocking as that sounds, it is not unheard of in Obion County: the very same thing happened in Oct. of last year, even as the homeowner frantically offered to pay anything if they’d help save her home.
“We are a city fire department,” city manager Jeff Vowell said at the time. “We are responsible for the City of South Fulton and we offer a subscription (to rural residents). If they choose not to, we can’t make them.”
The policy has been publicly condemned by the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), which called South Fulton’s practice “ill-advised” and “unsafe.”
“[Firefighters] shouldn’t be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up,” the IAFF said.
In a similarly shocking incident this past August, police and firemen in Alameda, Calif. stood by and watched a man drown because they did not have enough money to pay for shore-to-water rescue certifications.
They later recruited a civilian to retrieve the man’s lifeless body from the surf, and officials cited the incident as reason to change their policies.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of South Fulton, Tenn.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/07/fire-dept-watches-home-burn-because-family-didnt/
Firefighters in one Tenn. county watched this week as a family’s home burned to the ground, refusing to take action to save the structure because the residents had not paid their yearly $75 fee.
Homeowner Vicky Bell told a reporter with NBC affiliate station Local 6 WPSD that she immediately called 9-1-1 when the fire began, and emergency crews rushed to the scene.
Unfortunately for Bell, once firefighters arrived they realized that the family had not contributed to the department this year, so they stood down — exactly as instructed to by the City of South Fulton’s “pay for spray” policy.
Due to budget cuts, residents of rural areas outside the city limits have to pay the city for fire protection, or face potential disaster.
Shocking as that sounds, it is not unheard of in Obion County: the very same thing happened in Oct. of last year, even as the homeowner frantically offered to pay anything if they’d help save her home.
“We are a city fire department,” city manager Jeff Vowell said at the time. “We are responsible for the City of South Fulton and we offer a subscription (to rural residents). If they choose not to, we can’t make them.”
The policy has been publicly condemned by the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF), which called South Fulton’s practice “ill-advised” and “unsafe.”
“[Firefighters] shouldn’t be forced to check a list before running out the door to see which homeowners have paid up,” the IAFF said.
In a similarly shocking incident this past August, police and firemen in Alameda, Calif. stood by and watched a man drown because they did not have enough money to pay for shore-to-water rescue certifications.
They later recruited a civilian to retrieve the man’s lifeless body from the surf, and officials cited the incident as reason to change their policies.
The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of South Fulton, Tenn.
18
General / Re: FreedomBox
« on: December 07, 2011, 03:37:22 PM »
"Why Political Liberty Depends on Software Freedom More Than Ever"
http://youtu.be/-BSLBvwyUEs
http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations
http://youtu.be/-BSLBvwyUEs
http://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations
20
General / YaCy - "Web Search by the people, for the people"
« on: November 28, 2011, 12:32:15 PM »
http://yacy.net/en/index.html
"YaCy is a free search engine that anyone can use to build a search portal for their intranet or to help search the public internet. When contributing to the world-wide peer network, the scale of YaCy is limited only by the number of users in the world and can index billions of web pages. It is fully decentralized, all users of the search engine network are equal, the network does not store user search requests and it is not possible for anyone to censor the content of the shared index. We want to achieve freedom of information through a free, distributed web search which is powered by the world's users."
"YaCy is a free search engine that anyone can use to build a search portal for their intranet or to help search the public internet. When contributing to the world-wide peer network, the scale of YaCy is limited only by the number of users in the world and can index billions of web pages. It is fully decentralized, all users of the search engine network are equal, the network does not store user search requests and it is not possible for anyone to censor the content of the shared index. We want to achieve freedom of information through a free, distributed web search which is powered by the world's users."
21
General / Re: Shows worth watching
« on: November 16, 2011, 02:31:09 AM »
Firefly
I used to really enjoy Northern Exposure, too.
I used to really enjoy Northern Exposure, too.
22
General / Re: I want one!
« on: October 27, 2011, 12:31:41 AM »
I'm curious as to why he said "..and they're loud.", as if it's a benefit. Is there a benefit to them being loud, or did I just read the guy incorrectly?
23
General / "U Sank My Carrier!"
« on: June 01, 2011, 06:40:13 AM »
Interesting article. About what you'd expect.
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=6779&IBLOCK_ID=35&PAGE=1
"And the sickest part is that the admirals and the captains and the contractors all know it. Goddamn. Maybe we deserve what's gonna happen to us. Only thing is, it won't be the brass who die. It'll be the poor trusting kids on those carriers who'll die, the poor suckers who thought they'd get free training and a world tour, or even get the chance to "defend America." They'll die not even believing what's happening to them as the whole giant hulk starts cracking up and sliding into the water."
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=6779&IBLOCK_ID=35&PAGE=1
"And the sickest part is that the admirals and the captains and the contractors all know it. Goddamn. Maybe we deserve what's gonna happen to us. Only thing is, it won't be the brass who die. It'll be the poor trusting kids on those carriers who'll die, the poor suckers who thought they'd get free training and a world tour, or even get the chance to "defend America." They'll die not even believing what's happening to them as the whole giant hulk starts cracking up and sliding into the water."
24
General / Re: Bitcoin
« on: May 19, 2011, 09:55:21 PM »
It's been a while since I had a grasp as to why, but no. Every transaction, and each client, has a record of every other transaction. Theoretically, if everyone stopped generating, or if the internet kill switch was thrown, the chain could be "hijacked".
Sorry I can't explain any better, but someone included a podcast earlier in the thread where they went into detail, I believe.
Sorry I can't explain any better, but someone included a podcast earlier in the thread where they went into detail, I believe.
25
General / Re: looks like I'll have someone to vote for in the primaries
« on: April 26, 2011, 09:22:06 AM »Hope he and Gary Johnson don't wind up splitting the Liberty vote and cost both serious consideration.
I don't know anything yet about Gary Johnson. Does this supposed libertarian condone either war, or stealing money to send overseas?
28
The Show / Re: On-air advertisers page
« on: April 23, 2011, 12:07:43 AM »
Has this page been added yet? If so, could someone please point me to it?
29
General / Re: FSPNascar.com
« on: April 22, 2011, 09:27:50 AM »
Just "liked" the car. Not really sure what that's all about, but they're keeping track, so I "liked".
30
General / Re: Petition to Redistribute GPA Scores
« on: April 22, 2011, 09:14:12 AM »
It's too bad that they couldn't arrange to just petition the bottom 30%, and let the greedy 4.0 students realize that it won't matter what they'd vote for.
It would have been excellent if for each one of these kids that said they wouldn't support this, there were 3 others eagerly signing.
It would have been excellent if for each one of these kids that said they wouldn't support this, there were 3 others eagerly signing.