Soon: Synthetize a 3D environment using your pictures (and others')

Microsoft Photosynth is going to revolutionize the way you sort pictures. Right now you sort pictures according to your own tags, labels, or folders. Photosynth synthetizes a 3D environment based on the images in your pictures. Example: if you go to India, take pictures all around the Taj Mahal, Photosynth can arrange your images according to WHERE you took it around the Taj, in a 3D space, presumably merging with data available from the pictures of other people all around the Internet.

And this would add a further dimension to your pictures, much more than GPS geotagging. It will augment reality, give you a much more powerful view, and from a human point of view, evoke more intimate emotions about your pictures.

Check out the video here:

Vista Readyboost - FAT or NTFS, what flash drive to use ...

Vista features a caching technology called Readyboost, where, small files which take the hard disk drive a lot of time to read, are cached in a USB flash drive since USB flash drives have a far faster seek-time compared to Hard disk drives - yes, even Raptors.

There is a lot of talk on Readyboost on the web, but the details are lacking. After googling a bit, here's my take:

1) FAT or FAT32 or NTFS?

Though FAT and FAT32 use less CPU overhead, I thought that FAT would be fastest. Turns out to be not so... I guess it's because today's CPUs are so fast that the CPU overhead is nothing at all. Here're some experimenter data:

Test run #1 (without thumbdrive):

* Average boot time: 1:10m ~ 70s

Test run #2 (FAT32 formatted, 1840MB ReadyBoost swap file):

* Average boot time: 1:13m ~ 73s

Test run #3 (NTFS formatted, 1840MB ReadyBoost swap file):

* Average boot time: 1:05m ~ 65s



2) Format the USB drive at what sector or cluster size?

This is simple. If you have tons of small files, cluster size is an issue, since the smallest files which can be generated and stored is the size of the cluster. So if you have a 4KB cluster size, a 1KB file in fact would still take 4KB. Since Vista uses ONE HUGE FILE, just the default cluster size would be fine. Or any cluster size would be fine. The one detail I haven't worked out is `whether USB drives have a native cluster size'. Anybody can tell me this? I'd be grateful.

3) Which USB flash drive works?

I used the Imation Thumbdrive Micro 1GB, and it worked like a charm.

Discussion thread here, almost everything covered!

The Human Mind vs the mindless march of technology

Check out Cnet's special feature on the ten year old Apple Newton vs the brand new Samsung Q1 UMPC. The Apple Newton wins. Surprise... yeah.

The human mind, if intensely focussed towards creating something bespoke, in this case, a Newton handheld PC, vs taking a mishmash of technology, none of them bespoke, and concentrating on the off the shelf components and trying to keep costs down, it's no surprise:

When a human mind is dedicated towards the creation of a handheld PC, SPECIFICALLY, without heed to cost nor uniformity nor UI conformity nor anything else, the result can surpass 10 years of technology advancement.

Samsung shouldn't be embarassed, being in this case the glorified mindless manufacturer. But Microsoft should be, with their billions at their disposal, and 10 years of standing on the shoulders of giants, and yet not being able even to create an OS interface and subsidiary technologies to approximate the decade-old Newton.

When is this mindlessness going to stop, Microsoft? I'm tired of it.

Creative - watcha gonna do?

Here's a best guess report on the new Microsoft Zune Ipod killer. Seems to be a Microsoft branded product. While not detracting from the Ipod, it looks cool in a bland sort of way.

It's boring, period. The only thing left to speak about, is - what about those guys who used Microsoft middleware and software to make their own Ipod killers? Especially Creative - what are you gonna do now that Microsoft is rolling out their own branded PMPs?

Be a contract manufacturer for Micorosoft? Not a bad idea though, considering the quantum of success Creative's had with their own brands.

Microsoft and Sony may have agreed not to degrade HD resolutions output on non-HDCP compliant ports

OK things move really fast. Since I don't read German, I had to wait until some smart guy in Daily Tech to post a comment on a German article on Spiegel online that HDCP may not be necessary until after 2010.

I held my horses and took a good look at the article. After all, it might have been groundbreaking news! But turns out to be pretty old news. Or at very best, insignificant news.

First of all, there are `rumours' that Microsoft and Sony agreed not to degrade HDCP content on non-HDCP compliant ports. This has already been reported in the Wiki entry on HDCP at least only for Sony.

However, the Hollywood guys did not agree. And it's the Hollywood guys who are important, aren't they? Sony WAS a major supplier of playback and display equipment, but today, they're no longer as great as they were a decade ago. And their major preoccupation is the Playstation 3, which judging from the PS2's history, few people use a game console to play Hollywood content - it's a Game Console for god's sake.

Since the Hollywood guys did not agree, I'm gonna piegonhole this piece of news to the KIV folder.

So there.