Microsoft nerd reverse engineers Christmas lights, uses them as IM indicators

Apparently, even domestic Christmas lights are controlled by computers nowadays, and hopefully, as you all know, that means they're hackable. Andrej Kyselica, a Microsoft employee, took some GE-35 Christmas lights, hooked them into a .NET Micro Framework embedded controller, took another developer's work, developed a driver -- and voila! PC-controlled Christmas lights (video after the break).

In the demo, Andrej uses Microsoft Lync (Office Communications Server) to connect his instant messenger contacts (presumably Live Messenger) to the Christmas lights. The lights then show each contact's current status -- green, yellow and red -- or he can manually set them as 'out of the office', which is a rather pretty purple color. If the light is off, nobody is home.

While this is a cool hack, it pales in comparison to another computer-controlled Christmas lights experiment, which has been going since 2002: Alek's Controllable Christmas Lights. Alek lets you control over 21,000 lights, and inflate or deflate Elmo, Santa and Homer Simpson.

Continue reading Microsoft nerd reverse engineers Christmas lights, uses them as IM indicators

Microsoft nerd reverse engineers Christmas lights, uses them as IM indicators originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/15/microsoft-nerd-reverse-engineers-christmas-lights-uses-them-as-im-indicators/

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Hands-on: Tubeify mashes YouTube, Billboard, and Last.fm

While YouTube offers its own solution for music-lovers, it is not ideal if you're more of a listener. After all, YouTube leans towards watching videos, and its interface is geared toward that task. Still, YouTube does carry an awful lot of musical content, and there must be a better way to harness this wealth of content and make it into a personalized radio of sorts. Indeed, this is what Tubeify attempts to do.

The service is invite-only at this point, but I got my invite immediately upon asking for it. I then took it for an extensive spin, and produced the gallery which you can see at the end of this post.

Selection

While YouTube does carry a ton of music, it doesn't have everything. For example, a simple search for King Crimson completely stumped the system. It came up with the Last.fm record for the album, but since YouTube did not contain even a single track, it wasn't very useful.

Continue reading Hands-on: Tubeify mashes YouTube, Billboard, and Last.fm

Hands-on: Tubeify mashes YouTube, Billboard, and Last.fm originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/08/hands-on-tubeify-mashes-youtube-billboard-and-last-fm/

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Mini iPad Caught in the Wild?

There’s certainly no shortage of rumors regarding the next generation iPad. Especially not when it comes to the possibility that Apple may be working on a smaller version of their ridiculously popular tablet device. And while Apple is silent on the matter (not surprisingly), there’s a pretty big divide as to whether or not the [...]

Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/h3q8-Cfziyg/

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Google declares Chrome ready for enterprise duty

IT administrators tend to be a fickle bunch, and with good reason. When you're supporting a vital service that can determine whether or not your entire business can operate properly, you tend to be very cautious when it comes to changing out a key component. A key component like a Web browser, for example -- say, Internet Explorer 6, which is still a force to be reckoned with in the enterprise.

Google has been doing its best to get Chrome in the front door, of course. First there was Chrome Frame, which seamlessly integrates into Internet Explorer to provide a hybridized, modern Frankenbrowser. Next came Chrome's remoting feature -- which is still not ready for prime time but is positioning itself as an alternative to Terminal Services setups.

Two more recent additions -- the arrival of an MSI installer and added support for Windows policies -- have added even more enterprise cred to the browser. Chrome now offers an enticing package to the IT admin. It's secure, it's fast, and -- most importantly -- it's now easy to manage and deploy across an entire Windows network.

Over at the official Chrome Blog, Google took a moment to trumpet these features and they're no doubt hoping administrators take notice. "We're excited by the features built so far, and we're working hard on polishing the next set of policies that will make Google Chrome even more customizable and useful to users in the future," concludes the post. Successful test deployments with Proctor and Gamble, Boise State University, and Vanguard are also mentioned.

2010 has certainly been a phenomenal year for Chrome in the consumer market. Will Google see similar enterprise gains in 2011? We'll revisit this one next December.

Google declares Chrome ready for enterprise duty originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 06:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/16/google-declares-chrome-ready-for-enterprise-duty/

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iPad aids 25 percent increase in online computer sales

In a report released by comScore, a digital reporting firm, online computer hardware sales have increased by 25 percent this holiday season. Handheld computing devices like the iPad drove much of that growth, according the report.

This means computer hardware is the faster growing segment of holiday purchases, just ahead of consumer electronics. (Consumer electronics have grown 22 percent this season.) The reporting company called out the iPad by name, saying "handheld devices (such as Apple iPads and e-readers) and laptop computers drove much of the growth."

It's an interesting choice to group the iPad, which is a tablet computer, with dissimilar devices like the Kindle or Nook. Unfortunately, comScore didn't release any numbers about how the iPad did against those e-readers. It will be interesting to see Apple's reports about the iPad after this quarter, since we know they sold nearly 4.2 million iPads in the previous quarter.

[via AppleInsider]

iPad aids 25 percent increase in online computer sales originally appeared on TUAW on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/20/ipad-aids-25-increase-in-online-computer-sales/

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Windows Live Writer, Movie Maker, and Photo Gallery get a new, no-frills plug-in site

At long last, Microsoft has given plug-ins for Windows Live apps their own home. You'll now find enhancements for Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Live Writer at plugins.live.com -- rather than at gallery.live.com, where they were nestled in amongst the sidebar and sideshow gadgets.

The new site makes it easier to search for and browser plug-ins, though it's only helpful in the Live Writer section which has nearly 200 offerings. Movie Maker and Photo Gallery muster just over a baker's dozen combined, so you likely won't need to browse by tag to find what you're looking for. Tags are now displayed as well -- but again, they really only come in handy if you're looking for Writer enhancements.

This baby's as spartan as they come, offering only text listings, download totals, last update datestamps, and a single bold, red featured label on Inkubook's Photo Uploader -- though even that disappears when you click in to its detail page. There are no screenshtos, no user comments, and no ratings to help you decide whether or not a particular plug-in is worth an install.

Windows Live Writer, Movie Maker, and Photo Gallery get a new, no-frills plug-in site originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/16/windows-live-writer-movie-maker-and-photo-gallery-get-a-sparta/

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Blow Things Up is a fun, easy physics Time Waster

Time-wasters can sometimes be frustrating; after all, when I just want to distract myself for a few minutes, I'm not really looking for something that's going to make me feel like I'm not good enough. That's what work is for, right?

Blow Things Up is a nice game, because you will be good at it. You get a number of bombs which you can plant anywhere on the screen, even midair. Once you put a bomb in place, it doesn't shift, roll, move, or do anything suspicious until you hit Space - at which point it does what a bomb should, which is explode.

When the bomb explodes, it shifts things around; ideally, it shifts the "bad guys" off the screen. By "bad guys" I mean those cute red cyclops you can see at the top and the middle of the screenshot. The yellow cyclops are the "good guys", and if you push them off the screen, you lose.

It took me about 3-4 minutes to reach level 22; it was virtually effortless, which is just what I needed right now. Quite a fun little game.

Blow Things Up is a fun, easy physics Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/12/21/blow-things-up-is-a-fun-easy-physics-time-waster/

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