The Scale of Everything in the Known Universe

Sure you’ve seen this sort of thing before (in the Eames short ‘Powers of Ten’, and in films like Contact and Men in Black), but one more can’t hurt.  The camera zooms into the smallest part of atomic structure and zooms out to the widest view of the known universe.  Move the slider at the bottom to see the scale of everything.  Try it here  (note: takes a little while to load)

3D Cat Has Stern Look on Face

Real Time Voice Translation from Google (in a couple of years)

“The company would combine its advanced voice recognition know-how with its text translation service to create a mobile phone that acts as an instant interpreter.

Head of translation services Franz Och said: “We think speech-to-speech translation should be possible and work reasonably well in a few years’ time. “Clearly, for it to work smoothly, you need a combination of high-accuracy machine translation and high-accuracy voice recognition, and that’s what we’re working on.”  Full Story

Ever Wonder How the Planets In the Solar System Move?

This animated tool reveals the speed and motions of the planets in our solar system while allowing you to control numerous variables, or just watch various “tours” of planetary bodies in motion.  Take a look

Say Goodbye to $9.99 ebooks (and thank Apple for $14.99 ones)

“The future of the $9.99 e-book is in danger.   A third major publisher, Hachette, is going for Apple’s agency model in order to sell e-books for up to $14.99 apiece.  With two out of five major publishers already against the Amazon model, and a third pushing price renegotiations, will the other two (Penguin and Simon & Schuster) follow suit?  Most probably.”  Full Story

Friday Foto of the Day

 

Google Store Views Coming to GMaps. Look Inside A Store

“Users can already see satellite images of the entire Earth’s surface, as well as street-level views of some cities. Now, according to a report on Search Engine Land, you will soon be able to jump from Street View to interior photographs of stores.

Search Engine Land was tipped off by retailer ”Oh Nuts”, which claimed that Google photographed its store as part of the new feature, which will be called Google Store Views.”  Story

Get your free credit report once a year from a trusted source

According to msnmoney.com, the only authorized source for consumers to access their free annual credit report online is:  https://www.annualcreditreport.com

** Please Note – while your report is free, your credit score is not free, and the site will offer to provide it for $7.95.

You are entitled to receive one free credit report every 12 months from each of the 3 nationwide consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). These free credit reports can be requested through this website, by phone or by mail.  Click the following link for information on requesting a free report by phone or mail.  Hearing impaired consumers can access the TDD service by calling 7-1-1 and referring the Relay Operator to 1-800-821-7232.”

Amazon Said to Buy Touch Screen Company

“In a sign that Amazon wants to upgrade its Kindle e-reader to compete head-on with the Apple iPad, Amazon has acquired Touchco, a start-up based in New York that specializes in touch-screen technology, a person briefed on the deal said Wednesday. 

Touchco uses a technology called interpolating force-sensitive resistance, which it puts into displays that can be completely transparent and could cost as little as $10 a square foot. The capacitive touch screens used in the iPad and iPhone are considerably more expensive. Unlike those screens, the Touchco screens can also detect an unlimited number of simultaneous touch points.”  Story

Liquid Glass, The Next Big Thing In Coating

“Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products…

 A year-long trial of the spray in a Lancashire hospital also produced “very promising” results for a range of applications including coatings for equipment, medical implants, catheters, sutures and bandages. The war graves association in the UK is investigating using the spray to treat stone monuments and grave stones, since trials have shown the coating protects against weathering and graffiti.”   Full Story