British Library digitizes 300 years worth of newspaper archives, brings 65 million articles online

British Library digitizes 300 years worth of newspaper archives, brings 65 million articles online:

Britain's historical news junkies are in for a treat today, because the British Library has just digitized a major chunk of its newspaper archive, comprised of four million pages spanning some 300 years of headlines. With today's launch of the British Newspaper Archive, users can search and browse through a staggering 65 million articles from a range of regional UK papers, encompassing the most newsworthy events from the past few centuries. Developed in coordination with online publisher Brightsolid, the archive also allows for remote article access and download, saving researchers a trip to the British Library's newspaper depository in North London. The initiative seems similar to some we've seen from the Library of Congress in recent years, though the archive isn't completely open to the public. Users can search the site for free, but will have to pay a subscription fee to download any article as a PDF. And, expansive as the selection may be, Brightsolid and the Library are aiming to digitize a full 40 million pages over the course of the next decade.



Nevertheless, today's arrival marks an important first step for the British Library and, in a larger sense, British history -- on both individual and collective levels. "For the first time people can search for their ancestors through the pages of our newspapers wherever they are in the world at any time," Ed King, head of the library's newspaper collection, told the Telegraph. "But what's really striking is how these pages take us straight back to scenes of murders, social deprivation and church meetings from hundreds of year ago, which we no longer think about as we haven't been able to easily access articles about them." Be sure to check out the archive at the source link below, and be prepared to lose your entire afternoon in the process.

British Library digitizes 300 years worth of newspaper archives, brings 65 million articles online originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Telegraph, NPR | British Newspaper Archive | Email this | Comments

Visualized: Sweden's Dreamhack in pictures

Visualized: Sweden's Dreamhack in pictures:

What does a legion of Swedish LAN party-goers and a 120Gbps internet connection look like? Something like this. Dreamhack, officially (according to the Guinness Book of Records) the world's largest LAN party, offered up all sorts of gaming thrills along the lines of StarCraft II and Counter-Strike to the 12,000 attendees. It looks like the air was thick with excitement, perspiration -- and hopefully a little air freshener.

Visualized: Sweden's Dreamhack in pictures originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Kotaku | Email this | Comments

Stradivarius violin recreated from CAT scan, 'sounds amazingly similar'

Stradivarius violin recreated from CAT scan, 'sounds amazingly similar':

We've seen all kinds of crazy things being printed -- from bones to blood vessels -- and now you can add antique violins to that list. Music loving Radiologist Steven Sirr popped his into a CAT scanner to see what it was made of, then showed the results to a violin-making friend. Curiosity soon led them to scan everything from guitars to mandolins, so when the chance to take a peek inside a 307-year-old Stradivarius came up, how could they resist? 1000 scans later, the files were converted to 3D CAD format and another violin maker enlisted. Crucially, the images show the density of the wood all the way through, allowing a CNC machine to carve out copies of each section, with different woods used to match the differing densities. With all the parts in place and a lick of varnish, the replicas were complete. Sirr claims the copies sound "amazingly similar" to the original, but we are unsure if he plans to make it open-source.

Stradivarius violin recreated from CAT scan, 'sounds amazingly similar' originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink BBC | RSNA | Email this | Comments

Sony updates PS3 to version 4.00 ahead of PS Vita launch

Sony updates PS3 to version 4.00 ahead of PS Vita launch:

Sony is setting the table for the PlayStation Vita today, with the release of a new PS3 update. With version 4.00, rolling out now, PS3 users will be able to share content like music, video and images with the forthcoming Vita, scheduled to launch in Japan on December 17th. The refresh also allows gamers to save PS Vita games and data on their PS3 hard drives, while updating their handheld software using the PS3's network. There are some more PS3-specific features, as well, including enhanced PSN privacy settings and game patches, among others. Find out more at the source link below.

Sony updates PS3 to version 4.00 ahead of PS Vita launch originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | PlayStation Blog | Email this | Comments

SandyStation interactive sandbox uses Kinect to make topography much more interesting (video)

SandyStation interactive sandbox uses Kinect to make topography much more interesting (video):

If you're not really into using your Kinect experiment to launch your new startup or give your next presentation, let us offer another entertaining option. Two students at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen have created an interactive sandbox using Kinect, a projector, a computer and, of course, a box chock full of sand. The Xbox motion / depth detector is installed about two feet above the sand pit to measure each area that is carved out. Using a unique detection program, the topographical information is then transmitted to a data projector that renders an image in the sandpit -- the image being a color based on the height or depth of what has been created. The devs have built out a few different projections. Hills that are constructed by the user are assigned a shade of green based on height, while troughs are given blue hues according to depth. What's that? You built a hill and dug out the center? The projector sees that as a volcano, complete with spewing lava. If you're tired of SimCity and want to actually get your hands dirty, take a peak at the video just past the break.



[Thanks, Mark]

Continue reading SandyStation interactive sandbox uses Kinect to make topography much more interesting (video)

SandyStation interactive sandbox uses Kinect to make topography much more interesting (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Smart Mania (Czech) | Email this | Comments

LG HX350T LED Projector

LG HX350T LED Projector:

Recently, a friend of mine blurted out upon seeing the size and array of inputs on my LG HX350T projector, "This is the SMC Barricade of projectors!" The SMC Barricade was a great wireless router. Hackable, cheap, simple, versatile. Nothing like high-end, but a reliable piece of gear that did far more than its size and price implied. It's a fair description of this projector. It's easily portable (1.7 lbs), has thoughtfully arranged inputs and menus, and comes with a nice full-size (not membrane-keyed credit-card sized) remote control.

I've been watching LED projectors for a while. This is my second, and the first I've actually bought (the other was a demo unit). While at 300-lumens it's no longer the brightest LED-based projector in its price class (Optoma now has one with slightly better resolution claiming 500-lumens ), as far as I know this is the cheapest LED option at this junction of brightness and resolution to feature a built-in tuner. The tuner works well enough, though I've tried it only briefly and with conventional (non-HD) resolution. For $50 less, you can also go tuner-free.

Besides the coax input for cable signal, there are inputs for a composite TV signal, VGA, and HDMI signals, as well as a USB slot. You can plug in a USB key with video files in any of a fairly wide array of supported formats, and play them straight from there. It's not the very smallest LED projector on the market, but it's hard to see how it could be much smaller and still have so many input options.

All the inputs in the world don't matter if the output doesn't look good though, and I'm happy to report that, to my eye, it looks great. On any white (or even light-colored) wall, the image is sharp enough for my taste; on a screen, though, it's even better. (I'm using it with an Epson Duet 80" screen, selected for portability, and for having a wide-screen mode.) Realism dictates that a 300-lumen projector be used in a room that's not brightly lit. In a dark room, it has no problem providing a 6-8 foot 720p movie screen. You'll never mistake the output for that of a multi-mega-lumen high-end projector. This is a game of trade-offs. For my purposes, computer demos, home video screenings, late-night movies, and projecting scary scenes for a home-made haunted house, it works fine so long as I can control the lighting. In a room that's merely dim, it still looks great in the 40" range, which is a pleasant way to use it as an adjunct computer monitor.

Speaking of which: this projector is very nearly plug-and-play on my laptop, which is currently running Linux Mint (Debian Edition). I had to click on the "Monitors" control widget to specify its spatial relationship to the laptop's own screen, but that's about it. Even for this perpetual newbie, it was blessedly trivial. I plugged in the HDMI cable, and suddenly I had my first dual-monitor setup.

The sound is an understandable weak point in a tiny projector. Rather than harp on this, I accept that the output of the miniscule in-built speaker is on the wrong side of mediocre, and choose to adopt the attitude of "You mean it has *sound*?!" If you want better sound, or surround sound, bring your own. (There's a stereo minijack on the back, which can be connected to a stereo, or computer speakers, or headphones; you could instead hook up your video source itself to whatever sound system you've got on hand.)

My only other niggles with this device: the first is that the focus wheel doesn't have much throw. I haven't actually had any trouble getting acceptable focus, but I wish it had more room for fine-tuning. The second is that there's no zoom lens, so you must figure out a physical arrangement of projector / screen / source that works for you. A cheap camera tripod might be in my future.

It comes with a fairly nice carrying bag and cables for VGA and analog signals, but not HDMI. My advice: go mail order, and save the big-box store markup on an HDMI cable.

The Optoma I mentioned beats this one on most specs, but weighs (a bit) more and does (slighly) less, so I remain happy and declare this a very cool tool. And I'm looking forward to its successors!

-- Timothy Lord

LG HX350T LED Projector

$650

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by LG

American Airlines files for bankruptcy

American Airlines files for bankruptcy: (Reuters) - American Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday to cut labor costs in the face of high fuel prices and dampened travel demand, capping a prolonged descent for what was once the largest U.S. carrier.

Little Printer, custom paper news-ticker for your living room

Little Printer, custom paper news-ticker for your living room:

Today, London design firm Berg announced Little Printer, a "printer connected to the Web." Little Printer generates a hardcopy, customized news-ticker. It grabs stuff from sites based on your parameters, and you can send it stuff from your phone to read later. When you get home, you tear off the tape and have a little, disposable newspaper to read. It's the first product in a new line of "Berg Cloud" networked home appliances, all of which talk to a little custom box that you connect to your home router.

We love physical stuff. Connecting products to the Web lets them become smarter and friendlier – they can sit on a shelf and do a job well, for the whole family or office – without all the attendant complexities of computers, like updates or having to tell them what to do. Little Printer is more like a family member or a colleague than a tool.

Plus paper is like a screen that never turns off. You can stick to the fridge or tuck it in your wallet. You can scribble on it or tear it and give it to a friend.

Announcing Little Printer and BERG Cloud

How Publishers Are Cutting Their Own Throats With eBook DRM

How Publishers Are Cutting Their Own Throats With eBook DRM:

An anonymous reader writes "Sci-fi author Charlie Stross has written a post about how the Big Six book publishing companies have painted themselves into a corner in the rapidly growing ebook industry. Between user-unfriendly DRM and the Amazon juggernaut, they're slowly pushing themselves out of business. Quoting: 'Until 2008, ebooks were a tiny market segment, under 1% and easily overlooked; but in 2009 ebook sales began to rise exponentially, and ebooks now account for over 20% of all fiction sales. In some areas ebooks are up to 40% of the market and rising rapidly. (I am not making that last figure up: I'm speaking from my own sales figures.) And Amazon have got 80% of the ebook retail market. ... the Big Six's pig-headed insistence on DRM on ebooks is handing Amazon a stick with which to beat them harder. DRM on ebooks gives Amazon a great tool for locking ebook customers into the Kindle platform.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Judge Orders Hundreds of Websites Delisted From Search Engines, Social Networks

Judge Orders Hundreds of Websites Delisted From Search Engines, Social Networks:

An anonymous reader writes "A federal judge has ruled that a number of a websites trafficking in counterfeit Chanel goods can have their domains seized and transferred to a new registrar. Astonishingly, the judge also ordered that the sites must be de-indexed from all search engines and all social media websites. Quoting the article: 'Missing from the ruling is any discussion of the Internet's global nature; the judge shows no awareness that the domains in question might not even be registered in this country, for instance, and his ban on search engine and social media indexing apparently extends to the entire world. (And, when applied to US-based companies like Twitter, apparently compels them to censor the links globally rather than only when accessed by people in the US.) Indeed, a cursory search through the list of offending domains turns up poshmoda.ws, a site registered in Germany. The German registrar has not yet complied with the US court order, though most other domain names on the list are .com or .net names and have been seized.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

X is for X-Ray: Cool, interactive kids' app

X is for X-Ray: Cool, interactive kids' app:

There are lots of alphabet books out there. Matching a letter to an object and pairing them with a little bit of cute poetry is a conceit that goes back to the days when alphabet books were printed on a single sheet of paper protected by a thin layer of animal horn.

What makes the iPad/iPhone app X is for X-Ray different is its ability to feed kids' curiosity. Every alphabetic object in X is for X-Ray, from an accordion to a zipper, has had its insides photographed by Hugh Turvey, Artist in Residence at the British Institute of Radiology. (Which sounds like an incredibly cool job, to begin with.)

As you read through the book, you can turn the X-ray vision on and off, rotate some of the images 360 degrees around, zoom in on other images, and even put on a pair of stereoscopic glasses to see things in 3D.

Unsurprisingly, this gimmick works better for some letters than others. A flower, for instance, doesn't make for the most exciting x-ray to look at. Nor does a piggy bank. But the internal combustion engine more than makes up for those brushes with mediocrity. If you put the engine photo in x-ray mode and rotate it, the image comes to life. Suddenly, you're not just looking at the insides of a piece of mechanical technology, you're watching them work—pistons pumping and cranks turning. It's really neat and strikingly beautiful.

My main complaint with the app is really a complaint with app development, in general: X is for X-Ray is only available for iPhone and iPad. I don't own either of those things. If it weren't for the fact that Mike Levad, the app's producer, lives in Minneapolis and brought the app to me to try out on his iPad, I wouldn't even be writing this review. There seems to be a remarkable number of very cool science-related apps that aren't available for Android. I find that a bit annoying.

Watch the video to see a preview of X is for X-Ray.

Download it at the Apple App Store: $7.99 (iPad) and $2.99 (iPhone, iPod touch)

Microsoft enables Android and iOS users to experience Windows Phone 7... via the web

Microsoft enables Android and iOS users to experience Windows Phone 7... via the web:

Still tempted by the fruit of another? If you're looking Microsoft's way, but aren't quite ready to toss your adoration for iOS or Android aside, the coders in Redmond are giving you an alternative to quitting cold turkey. By visiting http://aka.ms/wpdemo on one's iOS or Android browser, you'll be immediately tunneled into a emulation of Windows Phone 7. We gave it a test run here at Engadget HQ, and it seems that every tile and swipe save for Apps runs properly. Can't say the fonts and such looked as smooth on our Galaxy S II as they do on the Radar, but it's a solid effort that'll definitely serve you well if you're considering the switch. Just don't try to flip the demo horizontally -- that's clearly a no-no.

Gallery: Windows Phone 7 emulator within Android 2.3's web browser

Microsoft enables Android and iOS users to experience Windows Phone 7... via the web originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Windows Phone Thoughts, Windows Phone (Twitter) | Microsoft | Email this | Comments

Brain Rot: I Am The 99%

Brain Rot: I Am The 99%: