JoostTeam

I stumbled on this new anti-ebay service called Listia. It allows you to unload all the stuff you don’t need in exchange for “Listia Credits”. You then use those credits to acquire goods other Listia members are listing. Simple? Yep!

I am currently running an experiment where I am offering a gift card with variable value based on the amount of credits I will get… sor of like assigning a $ value to a credit. Right now I estimate that a credit run for about 0.016$. This is based on today’s ended auctions for gift cards… so I am pricing my offering according to that.

I will keep an eye on future listings to see if credits value goes up or down… like tracking the value of the dollar. My reference will be the US$.

You can check the progress of my experiment at http://www.listia.com/auction/113282

I have also created a page where one can track Listia Credits Exchange Rate at http://netputing.com/listiacrx

Image via CrunchBase

As you may recall, Livestation was the first company in the world demonstrating live streaming on iPhones back in 2008.

A selection of Livestation’s partner channels is now available to watch live on iPhones/iPod Touches and soon iPads worldwide by simply opening the default browsers on the device and pointing it to http://mobile.livestation.com.

Currently there is only a few channels offered as the service is in beta, but Livestation plan to add more free-to-air channels in the coming weeks and add support for premium channels on a login basis. Users who sign up for access to Livestation’s premium channels (CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, etc) on the website (http://www.livestation.com) will be able to login through their iPhones and watch their favourite channels anywhere in the world both on 3G and WiFi.

Oh my god, what a complete bush… this is! RIM’s Lazaridis proclaims:

“Manufacturers had better start building more efficient applications and more efficient services. There is no real way to get around this,” “If we dont start conserving that bandwidth, in the next few years we are going to run into a capacity crunch. You are already experiencing the capacity crunch in the United States.”

The problem is not the devices! The problem is the greedy carriers that keep thinking 20 years back when there was no data to speak of, when voice was king and data was confined to floppy disks.

He should actually speak about the carriers and tell them to get up from their precious ass and do something about the lack of transport on their wireless networks.  Invest more in technology instead of crippling the users phone features.  Maybe people would be more inclined to spend money with them.

See, data has escaped and there is no putting this thing in the bottle.  The iPads of the work will consume wireless bandwidth like there is no tomorrow.

via RIMs Lazaridis warns iPhone is prophet of data network doom | 9 to 5 Mac.

This might be one of the iPad prototype?

• Look like iPhone: Check
• Has a home button: Check
• Look to be 10″ diagonal: Check

In a recent post Meklort stated that he will focus on simplifying the installation experience even more for the 0.8.4 release. his main goal is to make NetbookBootMaker supported on multiple platforms (or a version of it for each).

Many users on the MyDellMini forum have installed using Mechdrew’s NetbookCD and related guides. At the moment, NetbookCD can patch an OS X install DVD at runtime by using a special kext and a console version of NetbookBootMaker. This will be incorporated into both NetbookInstaller as well as NetbookBootMaker.

The following changes are planned (some already completed or in progress):

• NetbookBootMaker is in the process of being rewritten. It will no longer patch the installation dvd, instead NetbookBootMaker will install a postboot ramdisk (as with NetbookCD) that will patch the dvd (or usb drive) at runtime. This means that tiger will be a supported host OS.
• NetbookBootMaker will be ported to Windows (using Cocotron). NetbookBootMaker will be able to at least create both usb devices used for the two usb install method, although I'm also planning on getting it working with just one usb drive.
• Look into creating an app for Linux, however creating the usb drives can easily be done already.
• NetbookInstaller will automatically be run after a system update. A modified chameleon will run NetbookInstaller (via a ramdisk) if it detects the /System/Library/Extensions.mkext is newer than /Extra/Extensions.mkext. This should only happen if the user installs an OS update, or installs a kext to /S/L/E.
• NetbookInstaller and NetbookBootMaker will support 64bit targets. The main reason for the 64bit support is for the new Atom cpus from Intel, as well as netbooks with the Atom 330 cpu.

In other words 0.8.4 will focus on unifying the various installation methods so that a common code base can be used, as well as to simplify the amount of work a user needs to do to install OS X.

Since 10.5 is no longer in development, NetbookInstaller will no longer support Leopard. You can use an older version, such as 0.8.3. This is being done to simplify application as well as to reduce the download size.

via NetbookInstaller Plans for0.8.4)

After 8 months of hard work since the last release, I am glad to announce the launch of Livestation version 3.0, the latest desktop software for watching live news channels on your computer.

The latest release, available to download free of charge here, includes new functionality which we haven’t seen anywhere else.

Tweet what you are watching
You can now use Livestation as a native Twitter client so you can follow your friends and post your tweets directly under the video window without having to switch applications. But more interestingly, you can screen grab what you are watching with a handy button and have the screenshot posted with your Twitter update in one easy click. This is an example: http://twitpic.com/prled

Multiview
As the player is to all extents a multi-protocol and cross-platform video player, they thought it would be quite cool to be able to watch more than one channel at once. So, with Livestation 3.0 you can now do that by simply clicking on the + icon available next to each channel. It’s quite simple and here’s a screen shot http://twitpic.com/qf5bg/full

Pro
The Livestation team have also created a pro version of the player which viewers can purchase for a one off price of £14.99. Livestation Pro 3.0 has no ads, unlimited Multiview and more importantly all the partner channels are delivered via a dedicated, high performance data network for maximum reliability and for a better viewing experience. Here’s a more in depth description: http://www.livestation.com/pro

Premium Channels
The new player also supports premium channels which viewers can purchase on a subscription basis. Premium channels are delivered in 3 different qualities for maximum flexibility: low or ‘internet cafe’ mode, medium for every day watching and high for standard definition and plasma viewing (adaptive bitrates coming very soon too). Al Jazeera English was the first channel to go premium on our platform with more high profile international channels to follow soon.

As always, you can find out more about Livestation at www.livestation.com or get in touch with me directly.

This is really cool new technology.

What if you could draw some stick figures on a screen and somehow magically create a beautiful image montage?

Well, it’s possible.

A group of students in China have created PhotoSketch, a project that does exactly what I just described: it takes a rough, hand-drawn sketch, scours the web for photos that match, and runs them through an algorithm, stitching it all together. Watch this video presentation, you will not regret it:

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

via PhotoSketch: better than sliced bread, Photoshop | The Web Life | ZDNet.com.

Vladimir Bulovic a Electrical Engineering & Computer from Mit are showing a interesting video how OLED Displays work with using a glowing pickle.

OLEDs are nothing more than an electrically active organic material sandwiched between an anode (a electron-expelling electrode) and a cathode (an electron-receiving electrode). When an electric current runs through the system, the anode sends electrons to the cathode, creating a current through the organic material. This charges the organic material, and when positive and negative charges hit the same molecule, it releases a photon, which we perceive as glowing.

via How OLED Displays work using a Glowing Pickle.

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• MIT Scientist Explains OLEDs by Electrocuting a Pickle [Oled] (gizmodo.com)

[Nick Nichols] set out to take a photograph of a full redwood tree. Here’s the catch, these redwoods are over 300 feet tall and they’re not just standing in the middle of a vast desert. If the photo is taken from a distance, you will only capture the top part of these majestic beauties. How can you take the shot from close up? Build a custom rig to take multiple shots and stitch them together for a composite photo.

[Nichols] built the rig to hold three cameras focused to the left, middle, and right of the tree. The frame includes a gyroscope to keep the cameras steady. By lowering the cameras from the top to the bottom of the redwood they were able to capture 84 pictures to assemble the final shot. The result is featured in the October edition of National Geographic magazine.

via Multi-camera rig makes trees say cheese – Hack a Day.

When your smartphone drops from $249 to $79 over a summer, you have to wonder what’s going on. Two rumors are circulating this AM, one that Palm is laying off folks, perhaps in the Windows Mobile team.

The estimated sales for the Pre topped out at 375,000 at the end of August and they went from $299 ($199 after rebate) to about $79 in about eleven weeks. While this might be normal for a feature phone – the subsidy kicks in once they’re sure that the early adopters who simply must have the LG Chocolate have had their fix – this isn’t good for a smartphone that was supposed to be the lead invasion force for a new WebOS smartphone renaissance.

Finally, Palm has finally backed off over iTunes Syncing. The latest WebOS update doesn’t sync with iTunes and won’t be syncing with iTunes any time soon. After using brute force and then running to the USB standards body, the company may have finally given up.

via Pre faltering, Palm laying off employees?.