Naquada

It’s no accident that the conference rooms at Vocera Communications headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., are named after characters from the Star Trek universe–Kirk, Spock and Picard.

Just as the communicators that Captain Kirk carried down to alien planets in the 1960s version of the Viacom TV show foreshadowed a world with ubiquitous mobile telephones, the two-ounce badge central to the Vocera Communications System was inspired at least in part by the “com badges” that appeared on later versions of the show. Just as Captain Picard would do, Vocera badge wearers can touch the slim device they wear on their uniforms, say who they want to talk to and, assuming that person is wearing his badge, be connected.

The badge contains two chips, one a digital signal processor chip from Texas Instruments, the other a fairly unremarkable wi-fi radio not terribly dissimilar from those found in any Wi-Fi networking card used in a laptop PC. The TI chip handles all the voice processing and the wi-fi radio transmits them up to a computer network.

That’s where the real work takes place. Hitting the badge button and saying a name triggers a powerful server-based application that matches the name spoken with a database entry. It then locates that person on the network, activates their badges and starts the conversation, which takes place using Voice-Over-Internet Protocol or VOIP–meaning the voices are converted to bits and transmitted over a computer network.

now HOW cool is that…

source: SlashDot

I’ve started reading and enjoying Mark Hurst’s This is Broken blog. Its a collection of poor and bad user experiences..

Its amazing the number of ways someone can actually stuff up something.. it covers all those little ‘experience’ annoyances that really, with a little more thought would never have happened..

I picked the link up from the Diary of a Superfluous Man who also happens to work for the same company as myself..

Source – ‘This is Broken’ – Diary of a Superfluous Man

A while back think geek put out some plush microbes

as with all infections.. they’ve increased.. you can now get some additional cuddly nasties.. Porphorymonas gingivalis (halitosis) and Epstein-Barr Virus (mono or Kissing Disease)

Cute aint they ??

you should read my original entry about the little plush microbes..

Stanley Gibbons investments have a skeleton key from the personal collection of escapologist Harry Houdini. The key was obtained from the estate of famous key and lock collector Paul Harter who originally purchased Houdini’s locks and keys from Houdini’s brother Hardeen. Mounted, framed and glazed together with a photograph of Houdini and a gold plaque which reads “Authentic key from the personal collection of the great Harry Houdini (1874 – 1926)” at only

A long time a very very well respected member of the magishing world, although not really a magish as such.. passed away…

Harry Eng put ’stuff’.. anything you liked in fact, into bottles.. and then added some more stuff.. just because he could..

His ‘one-gallon jug’ contained a pair of tennis shoes, a pocket dictionary, a tennis ball, a large pair of scissors, a pack of cigarettes, a large Turk’s-head knot, a deck of cards with a rope through a hole in the center and a padlock going through a loop in the rope.

I put up a page dedicated to Harry Eng’s memory a few years ago, along with my thoughts on him. I was very touched to recieve a personal email from his daughter just after his death, thanking me for preserving Harry’s memory. That sites long gone, but I’ll try and sort out the many photos I had of harrys puzzle bottles and post them here..

Since then I’ve followed Harrys directions on putting stuff into bottles

although fairly simple (from harrys point of view..) my two bottles both contain a full set of 52 playing cards. The first is a looney tunes set of cards, glued into a solid block of 52 cards inside their card case (yes I glued them INSIDE the bottle) with a single card sticking out of the glued block with my signature on (and yes it was signed also inside the bottle). The other is an orange juice bottle (about a 1/4 inch neck hole) containing a loose set of 52 playing cards inside their case with the card case left open.

I also did a large bottle containing 27 ping pong balls, although that was smashed a few years ago..

I dealt with a company a few years ago, not only was i impressed with how good their applications were, but I was also impressed with their frankness about thier roles in the company..

‘Sales Gal’, ‘Techie Bloke’, ‘Money Guy’ none of that ‘Head of financial enablement and borrowing..’

Seems as though they have dissolved or stopped trading..

Still I have a nice new shiney domain name (isnt WhoWhatWare a great name?)

This is a great technical history of apple and its roots in System I through System 6,7, BEOS, NEXT, OpenStep, yellow, pink, Rhapsody, and finally OSX

Nikon ran a competition for photos of ‘Xtreme Sandwiching‘

Over the last three months, intrepid sandwich eaters all over the UK photographed themselves munching Marmite sandwiches in the most unusual places in their quest to become the Xtreme Sandwich Champion.

Personally I’m yet to be convinced on the appeal of ‘the evil black tar’, but my personal favorite from the runners up was the scuba diver..

Notice the fish making a quick escape once it realises whats in the sandwich!!

The full gallery of runners up is also on nikons site

I used to fly Hot Air Balloons, this is me taking ‘flying blind’ up over hungerford a few years ago

Until you’ve taken a balloon up, you dont fully appreciate just how quiet it is up at over 2000 feet and above. and just how good the views get..

and just how deadly quiet it is..

Tonight I hunted through old photos, and ended up scanning quite a few..

Its great looking back over things you’ve almost forgotten..

Top of the world ready to snowboard down… Mat, Jim, Greg and Me.. great huh ??